Eligibility criteria for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

The scheme aims to provide a health insurance cover to improve healthcare services for the lowest strata of society.The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), earlier known as the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, was launched in September 2018.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana enables the poor to access cashless secondary and tertiary healthcare by providing an insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh to every family. Both the central and state governments pay the premium towards this health insurance cover. It aims to assist 50 crore beneficiaries in India's rural and urban areas. They need not pay for any of the services as both pre-and post-hospitalisation expenditures are covered. Through kiosks operated by Arogya Mitras, any person can check whether he or she is a beneficiary.

Here’s all you need to know to check for PMJAY eligibility criteria

The inclusion of beneficiaries in the scheme is not through registration. Instead, it is based on information collated by the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011 (SECC 2011) and covers eight crore families in rural areas and two crore families in urban areas.

The parameters for including beneficiaries in the rural areas differ from those in the urban areas. The general eligibility parameters followed in the SECC 2011 have literacy rates, median household income, occupation, type of housing, and sanitation. The beneficiaries in the rural areas are identified on the seven deprivations contained in the SECC database, whereas, in the urban areas, 11 occupational criteria are used to verify entitlement.

The SECC 2011 list of beneficiaries excludes government employees, people who own 5 acres or more of agricultural land. Also, those possess two, three or four-wheelers, a mechanised fishing boat or Kisan cards with Rs. 50,000 credit limit, anyone who earns more than Rs. 10,000 a month and has a refrigerator and landline connections.

Additional Read: 10 benefits of the PMJAY Ayushman Bharat Yojana that every Indian should know

No application form to be filled; check your eligibility online

Those who qualify for the PMAY health cover do not need to apply; there are no registration fees to be paid or application forms to be filled. All that a person needs to do to find if he or she is a beneficiary is to either call up the helpline number or enter a few details on the official website.

1. The PMJAY helpline number, which potential beneficiaries can use to crosscheck their inclusion in the list, is 14555.
2. You can log into the scheme’s official portal. Once there, you can enter your mobile number and a captcha code. Click on ‘Generate OTP’ and wait for an SMS to arrive on your mobile containing the one-time password. After entering your OTP, the website leads you to a search screen containing slots for areas, search by name, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s name and PIN code.

You can check for eligibility by entering your name, mobile number, ration card number, or Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna URN number. Make sure you select the state you fall under before proceeding with this. If the list already contains your name, it will appear on the right side of your screen. Click where it says ‘Family Members’, and the action will reveal beneficiary details and who all in your family are entitled to the health cover.

Thus, PMJAY is an inclusive health insurance scheme that gives the vulnerable sections of society a chance to get medical treatment, pre-and post-hospitalisation care, and even surgery free of cost.