More than 50% of India’s total population is deprived of proper treatment due to financial shortage. PMJAY aims to help them access proper health services and prevent exorbitant medical expenses, eventually helping and supporting the middle-class population avoid poverty.

So, here are some of the benefits you can expect from this government-backed health insurance scheme:

• The beneficiary family under this scheme is supposed to receive a benefit cover of Rs.5 lakhs per year.
• The scheme provides coverage for nearly 1393 procedures, including room charges, doctor’s fees, diagnostic services, treatment cost, ICU and operation theatre expenses, etc.
• The beneficiary can claim cashless medical facilities across both public and private hospitals in India.
• Under this scheme, you will get pre-hospitalisation cover for 3 days and post-hospitalisation cover for 15 days. During that time, the patient will also get complete coverage for medicines and diagnostics.
• One of the great advantages of this scheme is that it does not restrict anyone to avail of these benefits based on their gender, age, or family size. However, one needs to keep a prescribed ID handy to utilize Ayushman Bharat benefits at the hospital.

Who is eligible for Ayushman Bharat Yojana?

The eligibility criteria are a bit stringent since the government is focusing on extending these benefits to the economically challenged section of the society. Therefore, make sure to go through the following eligibility parameters of this national health protection policy and see if you are qualified to avail its benefits:

Following are the ones who will receive the health coverage under the PMJAY scheme:

In urban areas:

The government has come up with 11 occupational categories, and those who are part of these categories will only be eligible for Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

• Electrician/repair worker/mechanic
• Construction worker/ security guard/ plumber/ painter/ etc.
• Washerman/chowkidar
• Ragpicker
• Beggar
• Domestic worker
• Driver/ transport worker/conductors and other people associated with this Cobbler/ street vendor/hawker/other service providers who are working on streets
• Home-based worker/tailor/artisan
• Delivery assistant/shop worker

In rural areas:

• SC/ST households
• Families having physically challenged members (at least one)
• Female-led family with no male adult member aged between 16 and 59 years
• Legally released bonded labourers
• Landless households whose sole earning source is manual casual labour
• People living in single-room houses with kutcha roof and walls

What is the online registration procedure for Ayushman Bharat Yojana?

There is no separate process for Ayushman Bharat registration since all the recipients who are already part of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana were identified by the SECC 2011 data. Besides checking the eligibility parameters, you can directly check if you are eligible for the scheme using the PMJAY website. Here is what you need to do:

Step 1: Visit the online portal of PMJAY and click on the ‘Am I eligible’ option.

Step 2: It will ask for your contact details to generate a one-time password.

Step 3: After providing all these details, go ahead with selecting your state. To find your name on the beneficiary list of PMJAY and verify if those medical benefits can be availed, search by the ration number/mobile number/name/HHD number, etc.