


{"id":40623,"date":"2024-04-22T01:12:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T19:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=40623"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:07:10","slug":"ayushman-bharat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ayushman-bharat-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayushman Bharat to all senior citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<p>\u25cf Why in News?<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf What is Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY)?<\/p>\n<p>\u25cf What is the need of Ayushman Bharat for senior citizens?<\/p>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>While releasing its election manifesto for the 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/lok-sabha-and-rajya-sabha\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Lok Sabha<\/a> elections, a prominent political party promised to expand its Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance scheme to cover senior citizens.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY)?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>About<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Launched in September 2018, the scheme aimed to offer secondary and tertiary care services to the vulnerable population in the society.\n<ul>\n<li>It was launched as a second component of the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ayushman-bharat-pradhan-mantri-jan-arogya-yojana-ab-pmjay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ayushman Bharat<\/a>\u2019 scheme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It aimed to offer medical coverage of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to poor and vulnerable families.<\/li>\n<li>The scheme covers over nearly 40% of the population targeted towards poorest and the vulnerable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Eligibility<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, the scheme targeted to cover 10.74 crore poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban worker\u2019s families.<\/li>\n<li>However, states implementing AB-PMJAY have broadened their reach to encompass 13.44 crore families (65 crore people).<\/li>\n<li>The beneficiaries as identified by latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Performance<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiram-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com\/Performance_of_Ayushman_Bharat_d31a073d9a.webp\" alt=\"Performance of Ayushman Bharat\" \/><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Benefits<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service, i.e., the hospital.<\/li>\n<li>Under the scheme every eligible family will be given Rs 5 lakh Insurance coverage benefit per year.<\/li>\n<li>It offers Health Benefit Packages which covers surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the need of Ayushman Bharat for senior citizens?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ageing population<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India is reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend at present. However, the declining fertility rate and increasing life expectancy mean that India\u2019s population is growing old.<\/li>\n<li>Only 8.6% of the country\u2019s population was over the age of 60 years at the time of the previous census in 2011, this proportion is expected to increase to 19.5% by 2050.\n<ul>\n<li>In terms of absolute numbers, the population over the age of 60 years will nearly triple from 103 million in 2011 to 319 million in 2050.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The aging population will mean increased expenditure on health and long-term care, labour force shortages, public dissaving, and old-age income insecurity.<\/li>\n<li>As a result, offering coverage to senior citizens will have huge public health implications.<\/li>\n<li>The senior citizens live with the highest burden of chronic health conditions and their complications, the cost of health is higher for them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low insurance coverage<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>As per the India Ageing Report 2023, just over 20% of people over the age of 60 years are covered under health schemes such as Central Government Health Scheme, Employees <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/employees-state-insurance-esi-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">State Insurance Scheme<\/a> etc.<\/li>\n<li>Coverage is higher in elderly men (19.7%) than elderly women (16.9%). There is not much rural-urban divide in the coverage, according to the report.<\/li>\n<li>The India Ageing Report found that the main reasons for a lack of coverage in elderly are low awareness (52.9%) and non-affordability (21.6%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Diseases of the old<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The elderly are not only affected by chronic, <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/non-communicable-diseases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">non-communicable diseases<\/a> and their complications, they are also more prone to infectious diseases because of a weakened immune system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analysis of the expenditure incurred by the govt under Ayushman Bharat<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the official data, the government has incurred the most money for five key specialties under the scheme: cardiology, general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, and medical and radiation oncology.<\/li>\n<li>This data show that the government already is incurring most of the money in providing treatment that is predominantly required for the elderly population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is India Ageing Report 2023?<\/h3>\n<p>The India Ageing Report 2023 was released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in partnership with other organizations. The report highlights the significant implications of India&#8217;s aging population for its health, economy, and society.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was the first caste-based census in India since 1931. It was a door-to-door enumeration across the country, covering all states and union territories. The census was conducted in June 2011 and the results were released in 2015.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-health\/bjp-ayushman-bharat-senior-citizens-9273879\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>BJP promises to extend Ayushman Bharat to all senior citizens: What is the significance?<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pmjay.gov.in\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PMJAY<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AB aimed to offer secondary and tertiary care services to the vulnerable population in the society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}