NEW DELHI : Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and his staff move into new offices at the National Health Authority from Monday to ensure that a million Ayushman cards are created and distributed every day as part of the government’s flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat PMJAY.
The scheme aims to cover over 100 million poor and vulnerable families, or around 500 million individuals, providing a coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.
The move comes amid a slackening in the pace of the roll-out of the insurance scheme, previously thought to be because of the covid-19 pandemic.
So far, only around 195 million Ayushman cards have been issued, with 36 million hospital admissions authorized. Mandaviya who will take over the NHA additional chief executive officer’s room, has scheduled a meeting with all heads of departments and state governments on Monday. “We have received a communication from the minister’s office directing us to set up a secretariate for Health Minister in NHA.