New Delhi: Health insurance for all citizens aged 70 years and above, irrespective of their income status, under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is likely to be introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 29, an official source said.

The U-WIN portal, which was developed to keep electronic records of routine vaccinations and is currently operating as a pilot, will also be opened by the prime minister on the same day.

The source said that besides these two, other projects will be launched on Tuesday.

The U-Win platform, a replica of the COVID-19 vaccine management system Co-WIN, was developed to keep a permanent digital record of the vaccinations of pregnant women as well as children from birth to 17 years of age. Universal Immunization Programme.

“The Prime Minister is likely to launch the expanded scheme under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme for people aged 70 years and above. It will benefit an estimated six crore citizens in around 4.5 crore households,” the source said.

Every individual aged 70 years and above, be it poor, middle class, upper middle class or rich, is eligible for Ayushman card and will get free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh at any of AB PMJAY established hospitals once the expanded scheme comes into force. was started.

A total of 29,648 hospitals, including 12,696 private hospitals, have been appointed under PMJAY by September 1, 2024.

The program is currently being implemented in 33 states and Union territories, except Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal.

The source said that anyone aged 70 and above can apply for the scheme based on their Aadhar card.

Official sources said that this is an app-based scheme and people will have to register on the PMJAY portal or the Ayushman app.

“Those who already have an Ayushman card will have to re-apply for a new card and complete their eKYC again,” the source said.

Senior citizens aged 70 years and above belonging to families currently covered by AB PM-JAY will get additional top-up cover of up to 5 lakh rupees per year for themselves (they do not have to share this cover with other members of the family below 70 years of age).

All other senior citizens aged 70 years and above will get coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum on a family basis.

Authorities had previously stated that senior citizens aged 70 and over who are covered by a private health insurance policy or State Employee Insurance can benefit from the benefits under the program.

However, those who are already beneficiaries of other public health insurance schemes like Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) and Ayushman Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) can either choose their existing plan or opt out. AB PM-JAY.

The scheme covers 7.37 crore hospital admissions, including 49 per cent women beneficiaries. The health ministry had earlier said that people have benefited more than Rs 1 lakh crore under the scheme.

The beneficiary base of the AB PM-JAY program has been witnessed continuously expanding, the organization said, adding that initially 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families, constituting the bottom 40 per cent of India’s population, were covered under the programme.

In January 2022, the Center revised the beneficiary base from 10.74 crore to 12 crore families, taking into account India’s decadal population growth of 11.7 per cent over 2011 population.

The program has been further expanded to cover 37 lakh working ASHAs/AWWs/AWHs and their families across the country for free healthcare benefits.

(This report is published as part of an automatically generated syndicated wire feed. Other than the headline, no edits have been made to the copy by ABP Live.)