Haryana Governor Starts Cashless Health Facility under Ayushman Yojana

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya inaugurated the cashless health facility under Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

• Haryana Government gave a significant gift of a cashless health facility to government employees and their dependents in the new year. 
• The Governor and Chief Minister distributed Ayushman cards to beneficiaries during the inauguration programme.

About the Haryana Cashless Health Facility Scheme

• The state government launched the scheme in November last year on a pilot basis, initially covering employees from the Fisheries and Horticulture departments. The coverage has now been extended to all regular state employees.
• The insurance scheme provides coverage for six life-threatening cardiac emergencies, cerebral haemorrhage, coma, electric shock, third and fourth-stage cancer patients, and all kinds of accidents as per the existing provisions. 
• Additionally, it covers all types of indoor treatments and daycare procedures, catering to the healthcare needs of the beneficiaries.

About Ayushman Bharat scheme

The Ayushman Bharat scheme is one of the flagship schemes of the Government of India. It was launched by the National Health Policy 2017, which aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This initiative has been designed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its underlying commitment to ensure no one is left behind.

• Ayushman Bharat is an initiative to transition from a sectoral and segmented approach to healthcare service delivery to a comprehensive, need-based healthcare system. 
• The scheme intends to execute innovative solutions to address the healthcare system holistically, covering prevention, promotion and ambulatory care at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Components of Ayushman Bharat

1. Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs)

• In February 2018, the Government of India announced plans to create 150,000 Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs). 
• These centres will be established by transforming existing sub-centres and Primary Health Centres and their main objective will be to provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) services that bring health care closer to the people's homes. 
• The HWCs will offer maternal and child health services and non-communicable disease treatments, including free essential drugs and diagnostic services.

2. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)

• The second component of Ayushman Bharat is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, also known as PM-JAY. This program was launched on September 23, 2018, in Ranchi, Jharkhand, by the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi.
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is considered the world's largest health assurance scheme.
• It aims at providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 12 crores of poor and vulnerable families (approximately 55 crore beneficiaries) that form the bottom 40% of the Indian population. 
• The households included in the PM-JAY scheme are selected based on the deprivation and occupational criteria of the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011) for rural and urban areas, respectively. 
• PM-JAY was previously known as the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) before being renamed.
• It includes families that were covered in the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), which was launched in 2008 and has now been subsumed under PM-JAY. 
• This means that the coverage mentioned under PM-JAY also includes families that are not present in the SECC 2011 database but were covered under RSBY. 
• The Government fully funds PM-JAY and the cost of implementation is shared between the Central and State Governments.