New Delhi: Health coverage for all citizens aged 70 and above, irrespective of their income status, under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), is likely to be rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 29, an official source said.

On the same day, the U-WIN portal, developed to maintain an electronic record of routine vaccinations, is currently operational on a pilot basis and will be launched by the Prime Minister.

Besides these two projects, other projects will also be launched on Tuesday, the source said.

The U-Win platform, which is a replication of the COVID-19 Co-WIN vaccine management system, has been developed to maintain a permanent digital record of the vaccination of pregnant women as well as children from birth until age 17 under the Universal Immunization Program.

“The Prime Minister is likely to launch the expanded scheme under the Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance Scheme for those aged 70 years and above. It will benefit around six million citizens in around 4.5 million households,” the source said.

Whether poor, middle class, upper middle class or rich, every person aged 70 and above is eligible to get the Ayushman card and will receive free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh in the one of the AB PMJAY approved hospitals once the expanded program is implemented. spear.

As of September 1, 2024, a total of 29,648 hospitals, including 12,696 private hospitals, have been brought under the PMJAY.

The program is currently being implemented in 33 states and Union Territories, except Delhi, Odisha and West Bengal.

Anyone aged 70 years or above as per Aadhar card will be eligible to apply for the scheme, the source said.

It is an app-based program and people will have to register on the PMJAY portal or the Ayushman app, official sources said.

“Those who already have the Ayushman card will have to apply for a new card again and complete their eKYC again,” the source said.

People aged 70 and above belonging to families already covered by AB PM-JAY will get additional top-up cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum for themselves (which they will not have to share with other family members who are under 70).

All other people aged 70 and above will get coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per year on a family basis.

People aged 70 and above, who have private health insurance or a state employee health insurance plan, will be eligible to receive benefits from the plan, officials said earlier.

However, those who already benefit from other government health insurance schemes, such as Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) and Ayushman Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), can either choose their existing scheme or opt for AB PM-JAY.

The scheme covered 7.37 crore hospitalizations, of which 49 per cent were women beneficiaries. The public has benefited from this scheme to the tune of over Rs 1 lakh crore, the health ministry had earlier said.

The AB PM-JAY program has seen a continuous expansion in the number of beneficiaries, he said, adding that initially 10.74 million poor and vulnerable families comprising the poorest 40 percent of India’s population were covered by the program.

In January 2022, the Center revised the beneficiary base from 10.74 crore to 12 crore families, considering India’s decadal population growth of 11.7 per cent over the 2011 population.

The scheme has been expanded to cover 37 lakh ASHA/AWW/AWH working across the country and their families to avail free health benefits.

(This report was published as part of an auto-generated newswire. Other than the headline, no edits were made to the copy by ABP Live.)