36.16 cr Ayushman Cards created under PMJAY Scheme: Centre

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): About 36.16 crore Ayushman Cards have been created for beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), said the Union government on Tuesday.

“As per the PMJAY dashboard, as of December 12, 36.16 crore Ayushman Cards have been created for such beneficiaries. Of these, 29.87 Crore cards have been created for the beneficiaries residing in rural areas,” the MoS said. said Union Minister of State (MoS) for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

Launched in 2018, PMJAY provides financial protection to deprived rural families. It also identifies occupational categories of urban workers’ families.

The flagship scheme “offers a benefit cover of Rs 5,00,000 per family per year (on a family floater basis). Services include a range of procedures covering all the costs related to treatment, including drugs, supplies, diagnostic services, physician's fees, room charges, surgeon charges, OT and ICU charges, etc,” Jadhav said.

Further, he also listed the achievements made under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) -- aimed to develop the backbone necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country.

“ABDM intends to make healthcare more transparent, secure, inclusive, accessible, timely delivery, and most importantly citizen-centric,” Jadhav said.

ABDM comprises key registries intended through building registries such as Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), healthcare professional registry (HPR), health facility registry (HFR), and drug registry.

Under the scheme, “a total of more than 71.16 Crore Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) have been created, till December 10,” the MoS said, adding that “around 45.99 Crore health records have been linked with ABHA”.

“Around 3.54 lakh health facilities have been registered on the health facility registry (HFR), and about 5.37 lakh healthcare professionals have been registered on the healthcare professional registry (HPR),” he noted.

Jadhav also informed on significant targets achieved under the National Health Policy.

“Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) reduced from 103 per 100,000 live births in 2017-2019 to 97 per 100,000 live births in 2018-20 (against a target of 100 by year 2020),” the MoS said.

“Infant Mortality Rate reduced from 32 per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 28 per 1000 live births in 2020 (against a target of 28 by the year 2019) and Total Fertility Rate is reduced from 2.2 in 2015-16 as per NFHS-4 to 2.0 in 2019-21 as per NFHS-5 (against a target of 2.1 by year 2025)”, he added.

Separately, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel informed that more than 5.46 crore children and 1.32 crore pregnant women have been vaccinated in all phases of Mission Indradhanush conducted so far.

“Mission Indradhanush is a special catch-up vaccination campaign under the Universal Immunisation Programme, conducted in areas of low immunisation coverage to vaccinate left out and dropped out children and pregnant women,” Patel said, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. She informed that 11 types of vaccines are provided under the programme.