The Centre has so far issued over 42 crore Ayushman cards , providing free healthcare coverage to around 12 crore vulnerable families under the flagship Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

Over the years, the Centre kept tweaking the eligibility guidelines for the PM-JAY to bring more and more citizens under the scheme.

Initially, the government launched the scheme for beneficiaries from vulnerable sections of society, with beneficiary families identified from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011.

In January 2022, the scheme was expanded to touch the beneficiary base of 12 crore families. Many of the states and Union Territories (UTs) implementing the AB-PMJAY further expanded the beneficiary base at their own cost under the scheme using non-SECC dat

See Full Page