Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) rolled out from Ranchi

On September 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rolled out the Centre’s flagship Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) from Ranchi, Jharkhand. The ambitious scheme aims to provide coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually. It will cover around 50 crore people and there is no cap on family size and age in the scheme ensuring that nobody is left out. Eligible people can avail the benefits in government and listed private hospitals. According to the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data, the scheme will target poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families: 8.03 crore in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas. The entitlement is being decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database. The scheme will provide cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service. In it, Telangana, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala and Punjab are not among the states which have opted for the scheme.