Practice Test 9

The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is the world's largest government-funded health assurance programme, providing a health cover of five lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to approximately fifty-five crore beneficiaries belonging to over twelve crore families identified as economically vulnerable. Launched on the occasion of Deen Dayal Upadhyay's birth anniversary on twenty-third September 2018, the scheme targets families identified as economically vulnerable based on deprivation and occupational criteria drawn from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census database of 2011. Beneficiaries can avail cashless and paperless treatment at any of the empanelled public or private hospitals across the country simply by authenticating their identity at the hospital's Ayushman Bharat helpdesk, eliminating the need for advance payment and substantially reducing the catastrophic financial burden that hospitalisation has historically imposed on poor households in India. The scheme covers over one thousand five hundred medical and surgical packages, including cardiac surgeries such as coronary artery bypass grafting, cancer treatments including chemotherapy and surgery, kidney transplants, joint replacements, neonatal care, and numerous other high-cost procedures that were previously financially out of reach for low-income and middle-income families who lacked insurance coverage. Over seven crore hospital admissions have been processed under the scheme since its launch, generating aggregate savings estimated at several lakh crore rupees for beneficiaries who would otherwise have had to sell assets, borrow at high interest rates, or forgo treatment entirely to meet hospitalisation costs. The programme has created powerful incentives for private hospitals to expand their presence in smaller cities, district headquarters, and semi-urban areas where government facilities are often overstretched and the population previously had to travel long distances to access quality healthcare. The Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra, a health worker trained and placed at empanelled hospitals, assists beneficiaries in navigating the cashless treatment process and accessing the services they are entitled to under the scheme. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, launched in September 2021, complements the insurance scheme by creating a national digital health ecosystem with unique Ayushman Bharat Health Account numbers for every citizen, enabling seamless and secure access to health records across different providers, reducing duplication of diagnostic tests, and improving the continuity of care for patients who consult multiple doctors or move between cities. Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres, the community-level component of the Ayushman Bharat programme, have transformed over one lakh sub-centres and primary health centres across the country into comprehensive primary care facilities offering a wider range of services including screening for non-communicable diseases, mental health counselling, and palliative care.