New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said that under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), 12.69 crore cashless hospital admissions worth Rs 1.92 lakh crore have been authorised under the scheme (as on June 30) through a network of 37,413 public and private hospitals, significantly reducing the out-of-pocket expenditure.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that the scheme provides health coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to 12 crore economically vulnerable families, constituting the bottom 40 per cent of the population.
AB-PMJAY has significantly contributed to reducing out-of-pocket expenditure, said the minister.
According to the National Health Accounts Estimates 2022-23, out of pocket expenditure as a proportion of total health expenditure declined from 62.6 per cent in 2014-15 to 43.4 per cent in 2022-23.
This substantial reduction indicates that households are incurring a considerably lower share of healthcare costs directly from their own pockets, owing to increased public investment in health and the expansion of publicly financed health insurance schemes such as AB-PMJAY.
In March 2024, the scheme was expanded to include approximately 37 lakh families of Accredited Social Health Activists, Anganwadi Workers, and Anganwadi Helpers.
The scheme was further expanded in October 2024 to cover 6 crore senior citizens of age 70 years and above belonging to 4.5 crore families irrespective of their socio-economic status.
Meanwhile, the government has increased the budget in health research along with new schemes/initiatives to make research grants more competitive and accessible.
The budgetary allocation for the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has increased from Rs 2,732.13 crore in Budget Estimates 2024–25 to Rs 3,125.50 crore in Budget Estimates 2025–26 and Rs 4,000.00 crore in Budget Estimates 2026–27.
The allocation for 2026–27 represents an increase of approximately 21 per cent over the Revised Estimates for 2025–26 of Rs 3,150.00 crore.
(IANS)
