PRESS RELEASE
Abandon the AB-PMJAY scheme based on the discredited insurance model
The recent announcement regarding the launch of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) scheme has raised expectations that the scheme will somehow address the extremely urgent needs regarding healthcare in the country. Expectations have also been raised because of the labeling of the scheme as the ‘largest health protection scheme in the world’ and the promise that beneficiaries will receive Rs.5 lakhs as cost of hospitalization.
The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan wishes to point out that the mere assertion that the AB-PMJAY is the largest health protection scheme in the world, does not make it so – in fact it is entirely misleading. The Government’s own National Health Mission has an outlay of around Rs.35.000 crores, many times more than the Rs.2,000 crores allocated for the scheme in the 2018-19 budget.