New Delhi: In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, it was decided to include senior citizens above 70 years of age in the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, senior citizens above 70 years of age will now get free and cashless treatment up to Rs 5 lakh annually. Six crore senior citizens living in four crore families will benefit from this scheme.

Registration under Ayushman Bharat

To avail the benefits of this scheme, the elderly will have to register under Ayushman Bharat. The registration process will be started soon. Giving information about the cabinet decision, Railway, Information Technology and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the scheme will cover all the elderly above 70 years of age.

Total cover up to Rs 10 lakh

In the families which are already covered under Ayushman Bharat Yojana, the elderly above 70 years of age will be able to get separate treatment of Rs 5 lakh annually. This means that the families which are already getting the benefit of Ayushman Yojana will now have a total cover of up to Rs 10 lakh. If there are two elderly people in a family, then this facility will be jointly availed by both of them.

free treatment facility under

According to Ashwini Vaishnav, the option of getting treatment cover under Ayushman Bharat will also be open for the elderly who are already getting free treatment facility under the scheme of the Center, State or any other government department. If such elderly want, they can avail treatment facility under Ayushman Yojana by leaving the old cover of any treatment.

Rs 3,437 crore allocated

The elderly who are covered for treatment under ESIC will also be covered under Ayushman Bharat. Not only this, the elderly who have taken health insurance from private insurance companies will also be able to take advantage of this scheme. Vaishnav said that at present Rs 3,437 crore has been allocated for this scheme, but the option of increasing it will remain open if the demand increases.

Annual free and cashless treatment

It is worth noting that the Modi government had launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme for 10.74 crore poor families across the country in 2017. Under this scheme, more than 55 crore poor people were covered for free and cashless treatment of Rs 5 lakh annually. The BJP had promised in its manifesto during the Lok Sabha elections to provide the benefits of this scheme to the elderly above 70 years of age. The cabinet has fulfilled this promise.