In a big move, the Centre on September 11 gave nod to health cover for all senior citizens aged 70 and more under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) scheme. The latest decision is likely to offer benefit to nearly 4.5 crore families all across the country wherein approximately 6 crore senior citizens will get a Rs 5 lakh health insurance cover on a family basis.
This is believed to be world's largest publicly funded health insurance scheme. The scheme will offer comprehensive healthcare coverage to senior citizens irrespective of their socio-economic status. Under this scheme, senior citizens aged 70 years and above will get a new distinct card under AB PM-JAY that will allow them to fetch benefits of the scheme.

What Is Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana Scheme? AB PM-JAY scheme can be described as a flagship health insurance scheme that the government introduced in 2018 seeking to offer economical healthcare to the elderly. Touted as the world's largest health assurance scheme, it seeks to target more than 12 crore poor and vulnerable families. It has been aiming to cover nearly 55 crore beneficiaries, nearly 40% of the Indian population.
Major Benefits of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana
The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana offers cashless services in public and private hospitals. It helps in bringing down the out-of-pocket expenses for beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries will become eligible to a health cover of Rs 5 lakh annually. It will effectively cover costs such as hospitalisation, medicines, treatment, diagnostics surgery and post-treatment care, among others.
It is worth mentioning that there remains no cap on family size, gender, or age of the beneficiaries.
It can cover up to 3 days of pre-hospitalisation and 15 days of post-hospitalisation expenditures of the beneficiaries that may include the medicines and diagnostics.
Beneficiaries will be able to avail the services all over India in any empanelled hospital.
Soon after the first day of enrollment, every pre-existing disease will get covered under this scheme.
It can effectively help in alleviating the financial burden triggered by grave illnesses and hospitalization.
It covers nearly 1,929 procedures that will include costs for physician fees, diagnostics, room charges, medical implants, and ICU care.
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