Women now account for nearly 48% of Ayushman hospitalisations | India News – Times of India
Top officials in National Health Authority (NHA), implementing agency of the scheme, told TOI that since its launch in 2018, 6.5 crore hospitalisations have been made under the scheme which involved treatment cost of Rs 81,979 crore.Of this, 3.2 crore hospitalisations for Rs 39,349 crore involved women.
Officials said scheme utilisation by women beneficiaries has been higher than that of men in 10 states/UTs – Meghalaya (68%), Arunachal Pradesh (57%), Chhattisgarh (56%), Mizoram (54%), Nagaland (53%), Jharkhand (51%), Tripura (51%) and J&K (50%).
According to NHA documents, top specialties under PMJAY which were utilised more by women than men are – cancer (56%), ophthalmology (54%), otorhinolaryngology or ENT-related (51%), and neonatal care packages (57%).
“Enrolment under AB-PMJAY scheme is steered by thousands of ASHA and aangaenwadi workers across states/UTs. Women also constitute a significant percentage of healthcare providers at local units (AB-Health Wellness Centres). This has helped increase utilisation of the scheme among women, who have traditionally lagged behind in health-seeking behaviour,” a senior health ministry official said.
He added that another key change brought in by the scheme which helped increase women’s involvement in healthcare scheme was individual enrollment.”Before AB-PMJAY, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana or RSBY was used to provide health insurance coverage to the unrecognised sector workers belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category and their family members. Only one card was issued to each family, mostly the men who were the breadwinners. We realised this made women in such households dependent on the men to take them to hospital for treatment. However, in case of AB-PMJAY, individual Ayushman cards are issued to each member of families covered under the scheme which means now the women do not have to depend on anyone to seek treatment,” the official, who did not want to be quoted, said.
Till date, NHA sources said, nearly 32 crore beneficiaries have been enrolled under the scheme and issued Ayushman cards. “Initially, in the first two years of the scheme’s launch, only about 10 crore intended beneficiaries were issued Ayushman cards. In the last two years, since the ASHAs were involved, we have issued 20 crore such cards,” said a source.
