In January 2025, the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Health Authority (NHA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) in Odisha.
- With this, Odisha became the 34th state in the country to implement AB PM-JAY.
Note: At present, 26 states and 8 Union Territories (UTs) have signed the MoU with NHA for the implementation of AB PM-JAY in their respective states and UTs except, Union Territory Delhi and West Bengal(WB).
Signatories:Â
i.The MoU was signed between LS Changsan, Additional Secretary, MoHFW and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHA and Aswasthy S, Commissioner-cum—Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi (Delhi).
ii.Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, MoHFW presided over the signing ceremony. Charan Manjhi, Chief Minister (CM) of Odisha; Dharmendra Pradhan, Ministry of Education (MoE); Jual Oram, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA); Ashwini Vaishnaw, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and other senior officials from both centre and state governments were also present at the event.
About MoU:
i.As per the MoU, AB PM-JAY will be implemented in convergence with the existing Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY) in Odisha.
ii.The scheme will offer a health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per annum with additional Rs 5 lakh for women members.
iii.A total of nearly 1.03 crore families will be covered under the converged scheme, of which 67.8 lakh families will be supported by the central government.
About AB PM-JAY:
i.The scheme is one of the key components of Ayushman Bharat (AB), a flagship scheme of Government of India (GoI), which emerged from the National Health Policy 2017.
- It was launched on 23rd September, 2018 by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
ii.AB PM-JAY is the largest health assurance scheme in the world which offers a cashless health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
- Key Target: To cover 12 crore families i.e. around 55 crore beneficiaries across India.
iii.The scheme covers all members of eligible families irrespective of their family size, age, or gender, which ensures inclusivity for all.
iv.In October 2024, PM Narendra Modi launched Ayushman Bharat: Vaya Vandana Card (AB-VVC), expansion of AB PM-JAY which offers comprehensive health coverage to all the senior citizens aged 70 years and above.
v.AB PM-JAY is fully digitized and has covered nearly 45% of India’s population.
- Since the inception of scheme in 2018, 8.19 crore hospital admissions have been recorded, with Rs 1.13 lakh crore spent on providing healthcare to marginalized sections of society.
Click here to know more about AB PM-JAY
About Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW):
Union Minister- Jagat Prakash Nadda (Rajya Sabha – Gujarat)
Union Minister of State (MoS)- Anupriya Patel(Constituency- Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, UP); Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao (Constituency- Buldhana, Maharashtra)
