The Jammu and Kashmir health department till now has issued over 20.24 lakh ”golden cards” under the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY-Sehat scheme in the Jammu division to provide a yearly health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh, an official said on Monday.The Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY), a universal health insurance scheme, was launched on December 1, 2018, to provide coverage to about 3.17 lakh below poverty line (BPL) families in the Jammu division.With a view to provide universal health coverage, the AB-PMJAY-Sehat scheme was conceived and rolled out in the union territory in convergence with the AB-PMJAY scheme from December 26 last year, Financial Commissioner for Health and Medical Education Atal Dulloo said.”Till date, 20.46 lakh golden cards have been issued. At least one member of 6.68 lakh families has been issued golden card in the Jammu region,” he said.It provides health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year on floater basis to 7.14 lakh additional families of the Jammu division, Dulloo said.Thus, about 10.31 lakh families in the division are currently availing benefits under the scheme, he said.As many as 92 hospitals have been empanelled by the government under the scheme, Dulloo said.As a part of Ayushman Bharat programme, 599 health and wellness centres (HWCs) have been set up in the Jammu division to provide comprehensive primary health care, including universal screening of common non- communicable diseases like cancer and diabetes, he said.Dulloo said that about 39,000 patients have been provided 108 ambulances services since the launch of the scheme and these patients included 5,498 people who were infected with Covid.As 102-108 ambulance services were made functional since March 2020, 226 ambulances — 42 Advanced Life Support, 33 Basic Life Support and 151 others — have been networked into it for providing round the clock transportation facility to patients requiring immediate medical care in the Jammu division, Dulloo said.This service has also been utilised during Covid pandemic period.
