The expanded Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), meant for these aged 70 and above, has not but been applied in Tamil Nadu, although practically one yr has handed for the reason that scheme’s launch.

As of now, variations of opinion between the Union authorities and the Tamil Nadu authorities with regard to the implementation haven’t been resolved. “We have had a number of rounds of dialogue with the Centre,” says a senior official right here, including that the State authorities is awaiting clarification from the Central authorities. S.Ok. Mahendran, former MLA and president of the Madras Labour Union, in a press release, mentions that after having contacted the authorities involved together with these within the National Health Authority (NHA), it has develop into clear the scheme is “solely on paper.”

On October 29 final yr, the Union authorities expanded the scope of the AB PM-JAY to supply free remedy advantages of as much as ₹5 lakh per yr to all senior residents aged 70 and above together with their households, no matter their socio-economic standing. As per an official estimate, 6 crore senior residents involved, representing 4.5 crore households, get lined underneath the scheme. This quantity has been arrived at, maintaining in thoughts the 2011 Census and extrapolating the variety of such senior residents with an annual progress price of three.73%.

In Tamil Nadu, roughly 43.19 lakh such individuals, belonging to 32.35 lakh households, stand to profit. A doc of the NHA states that 4.06 lakh people from 3.69 lakh households determine within the PM-JAY database. The estimated figures of recent beneficiaries and their households are round 39.13 lakh individuals from 28.66 lakh households.  (According to the Election Commission’s information on the time of 2024 Lok Sabha ballot, the individuals aged 70 and above accounted for about 53.12 lakh). The ratio of contribution in the direction of premium between the Centre and States is 60:40, besides in northeastern States and three States within the Himalayan area, the place the previous takes the burden as much as 90%.  As of now, the Union authorities bears ₹1,000 crore yearly and the State, ₹200 crore, the official says.

Inaugurated in September 2018, the AB PM-JAY had initially sought to supply  secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation, by way of empanelled hospitals, to 12 crore households constituting “economically susceptible backside 40%” of the nation’s inhabitants.  As for the variations between the Centre and the State, the official explains that they’ve cropped up in respect of the unique model of the scheme over the definition of “economically susceptible backside” of the individuals.

While the Centre has relied on the findings of the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011, the State authorities takes the annual earnings of ₹1.2 lakh per household as the premise for willpower of poverty. Consequently, the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) advantages 1.48 crore households, of which 86.5 lakh households are lined underneath the built-in CMCHIS-PM-JAY. The former absorbs 60% of the premium (which is ₹869 per household) solely in respect of the latter.

“Our level is that the Centre, which waives the financial criterion for these beneficiaries aged 70 and above, ought to settle for our estimate of the economically susceptible individuals. We need them to bear 60% share of the premium for these individuals, numbering round 60 lakh,” the official provides.

Published – September 14, 2025 01:22 am IST

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