AB-PMJAY led to huge out-of-pocket expenditure savings: Centre

The Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has resulted in huge out-of-pocket expenditure savings related to hospitalisations for the targeted beneficiaries, Minister of State for Health S P Singh Baghel told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. A total of 3.14 crore beneficiaries were benefited during the last two years under the Centre’s ambitious health insurance scheme, he said.
The states/UTs having maximum and minimum number of beneficiary families supported by the Centre and state are Uttar Pradesh and Lakshadweep, respectively, Baghel said in a written reply.
Responding to a question, he said in Gujarat, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is implemented in convergence with the state scheme Mukhyamantri Amrutum.
As of July 19, 2023, a total of 41.34 lakh hospital admissions worth Rs 8,564 crore have been authorised under the scheme in Gujarat, Baghel stated. For the financial year 2022-23, central share of funds of Rs 6,048 crore were  released during the last two years to states and Union territories implementing the scheme.
Responding to a separate question, the minister said AB-PMJAY is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme in the world and aims to provide health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 12 crore families.
Further, many states and UTs implementing AB PM-JAY have expanded the beneficiary base under the scheme to approximately 15.5 crore families at their own cost.  «As of July 19, 2023, 5.39 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 66,236 crore have been authorised, which is a direct out-of-pocket expenditure saving,» Baghel said in his written reply.
Further, if these services would have been availed from the market, the cost would have been at least 1.5-2 times higher as the package rates under PM-JAY benefit from the economy of the scale, he said.
Therefore, Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY has resulted in huge out-of-pocket expenditure saving related to hospitalisations for the targeted beneficiaries.