&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Southern states lead in admissions to sanctioned hospitals AB-PMJAY India News")
Southern states lead in the number of hospital admissions approved under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), and four of the top five performing states are from the region, according to PMJAY Dashboard data.
Tamil Nadu topped the list with 9.05 million hospitalizations since the start of the program, followed by Karnataka (6.60 million), Rajasthan (5.74 million), Kerala (5.46 million) and Andhra Pradesh (4 million). .96 million).
Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp
This southern dominance comes despite none of these states being among the top five Ayushman card producers. Karnataka (17.5 million cards) and Andhra Pradesh (15.6 million cards) are the largest card producers in the South, ranking eighth and tenth on the list.
Telangana, which joined the program in 2021, has issued 8.29 million Ayushman cards, more than chart-toppers Kerala (7.70 million cards) and Tamil Nadu (7.54 million cards).
TN, Kerala on top despite decline in admissions
According to data presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Parliament, Tamil Nadu and Kerala topped the list of hospitalizations under PMJAY even as both the states saw a decline in sanctioned hospitalizations over the last three financial years.
Data accessed by Business Standard shows that hospital admissions in Tamil Nadu declined from 4.39 million in FY22 to 1.05 million in FY24.
Similarly, PMJAY enrollment in Kerala declined from 1.69 million in FY22 to 1.07 million in FY24.
While these two states have seen a decline, hospitalizations under the program are gradually increasing in other southern states.
The number of approved hospitalizations increased in Andhra Pradesh (from 1.13 million in FY22 to 1.84 million in FY24), Karnataka (from 1.08 million in FY22 to 3.21 million in FY24) and Telangana (from 323,421 in FY22 to 618,427 in FY24).
Queries sent to the Tamil Nadu and Kerala health departments regarding the decline in admissions under PMJAY did not receive any response before going to press.
Manufacturers of higher-end cards see lower registration numbers
According to the PMJAY dashboard, the state of Uttar Pradesh, which has 51 million Ayushman cards, has recorded only 2.8 million admissions under the scheme.
Similarly, other card-producing states such as Madhya Pradesh (40.2 million cards) and Bihar (35.6 million cards) reported 3.35 million and 778,000 hospitalizations, respectively.
Bihar resumed the program with a new name in March 2024 after a three-year hiatus, but no data is available on lower enrollment in other states.
According to data available on the National Health Authority (NHA) dashboard, the program has so far covered over 356 million citizens who have received Ayushman cards to get free health insurance worth Rs 5 lakh to cover hospitalization costs.
To date, over 68 million hospitalizations have been covered under this scheme at a cost of Rs 90,204 crore.
PMJAY is the world's largest publicly funded health insurance program that aims to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per household to approximately 550 million (55 crore) people in 123.4 million households for admission to secondary and tertiary hospitals degree.
Whether households are included in the survey depends on the deprivation and occupation criteria of the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011) for rural and urban areas, respectively.
The scheme was later expanded to cover Accredited Social Welfare Workers (ASHAs), Anganwadi workers and all citizens aged 70 years and above.
