In a bid to ensure that States are encouraged to ‘own’ the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Government has decided to allow co-branding on Ayushman Bharat health cards with states’ health schemes. This means that the cards can now be used for both central and state health schemes.
Until now, the cards only bore the Centre’s logo even though the Ayushman Bharat scheme is funded by states and the Central Government in a 40:60 ratio, an issue that some states had objected to. So far, 30 of 33 states have agreed to the co-branding plan. Delhi, Odisha, and West Bengal have opted to remain out of it.
“The National Health Authority — the administrative authority for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), the tertiary care arm of Ayushman Bharat (AB) — has decided to bring greater integrity and uniformity into the beneficiary cards issued under the scheme by re-christening them under a common name, ‘Ayushman cards’,” said the Union Health Ministry in a statement issued here on Wednesday. Therefore, the card that entitles eligible families to aid under the PMJAY, will now have logos of both AB and state government health schemes.
Launched on 23 September 2018, PMJAY gives an annual health cover of `5 lakh to eligible families.
In 2019, West Bengal pulled out of the scheme, with the State Government accusing the Centre of taking all the credit for it. Following year, she, however, said that the State would be willing to rejoin if the Centre funded scheme fully.