Ayushman Bharat expands: Odisha becomes 34th state/UT to implement PM-JAY

Odisha on Monday became the 34th state or Union Territory to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), seven months after the BJP came to power.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Health Authority (NHA) of the Union Health Ministry and Odisha’s Department of Health and Family Welfare at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme will be implemented in convergence with the existing Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana (GJAY) in Odisha. It will provide a cover of ₹5 lakh per family per annum with an additional ₹5 lakh for women members, benefiting around 1.03 crore families.

While 67.8 lakh families will be covered by the Centre, the state will fund the remaining beneficiaries under GJAY.

"Today is a historic day for Odisha. AB PM-JAY is not only the world's largest health coverage scheme but also the fastest to be implemented since conception,” Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said at the event.

“The scheme is fully digitised and covers approximately 45% of India's population”, he added.

Nadda pointed to the scheme’s success in remote areas, including Naxal-affected districts like Bastar and Bijapur, where hospital admissions have surged by 4.3%.

He also cited a Lancet study suggesting a 33% increased access to healthcare for cancer patients under AB PM-JAY.

Addressing the event, CM Majhi said, “People from our state, who were previously receiving treatment in around 900 empanelled hospitals, will now have access to cashless and quality treatment in over 29,000 government and private empanelled hospitals”.

He said the converged schemes will cumulatively benefit around 4.5 crore people of Odisha with the help of a single card.

The BJP-led Centre had long urged Odisha’s previous BJD government to join the scheme, but the proposal was rejected in favour of the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY). However, the BJP's victory in the June 2024 state elections led to the replacement of BSKY with GJAY.