Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)

What is Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY?

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is the health assurance component of Ayushman Bharat, launched on 23 September 2018 and implemented by the National Health Authority under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. PM-JAY is the world's largest publicly funded health assurance scheme.

According to the National Health Authority, PM-JAY provides Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to more than 12 crore poor and vulnerable families - approximately 55 crore beneficiaries - who form the bottom 40% of the Indian population. The scheme is fully funded by government, with implementation costs shared between the central and state governments.

Key objectives

• Reduce catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure on hospitalisation.
• Give poor families access to quality secondary and tertiary care.
• Make treatment cashless and paperless at the point of care.
• Provide the same cover to every senior citizen aged 70 and above.

Main features

• Family floater cover - no cap on family size, age or gender.
• No premium and no co-payment from the beneficiary.
• All pre-existing diseases covered from day one, with no waiting period.
• Portable across India - a card issued in Bihar works in Tamil Nadu.
• Around 2,000 medical procedures across specialities are covered.

How big is PM-JAY today?

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's Initiatives and Achievements update, as on 1 December 2025:

• 42.48 crore Ayushman cards had been created since inception.
• 32,574 hospitals, including 15,532 private hospitals, were empanelled.
• 10.98 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 1.60 lakh crore had been authorised.
• Women accounted for about 49% of cards created and about 48% of authorised admissions.

Delhi became the 35th state or union territory to implement PM-JAY, according to a Press Information Bureau release, and Odisha also joined in 2025.

Who is eligible for Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY?

PM-JAY has no enrolment process in the insurance sense. Eligibility is entitlement-based - your household either appears in the identified database or it does not.

You can apply if:

• Your rural household meets at least one of the deprivation criteria D1 to D5 or D7 of the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 - for example households with only one room with kucha walls and roof, households with no adult member aged 16 to 59, female-headed households with no adult male member aged 16 to 59, households with a disabled member and no able-bodied adult, Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe households, and landless households deriving the major part of their income from manual casual labour.
• Your household falls in one of the 11 urban occupational categories, including ragpicker, beggar, domestic worker, street vendor, construction worker, plumber, mason, painter, welder, security guard, coolie and other head-load worker, sweeper, sanitation worker, home-based worker, artisan, handicraft worker, transport worker, shop worker and washerman or chowkidar.
• Your household is in one of the automatically included destitute categories
• households without shelter, the destitute, those living on alms, manual scavenger families, primitive tribal groups and legally released bonded labour.
• You are aged 70 years or above, irrespective of income or socio-economic status, under the Ayushman Vay Vandana expansion approved by the Union Cabinet.
• Your state has extended PM-JAY to additional categories under its own state database - several states have added ration-card-linked or state-scheme families beyond the SECC list.

You cannot apply if:

• Your household is not in the SECC 2011 identified database or your state's approved additional database, and you are under 70 - there is no route to add a household on request.
• You are under 70 and above the deprivation thresholds. Households that were ranked out of the SECC deprivation criteria are not eligible merely because their current income is low.
• You live in a state or union territory that has not implemented PM-JAY. West Bengal has not implemented the scheme, so residents there cannot obtain a card, although a PM-JAY cardholder from another state travelling there is limited to empanelled hospitals in implementing states.
• You are aged 70 or above but choose to remain on CGHS, ECHS or Ayushman CAPF - according to the National Health Authority senior citizens covered by those schemes must choose one or the other and cannot hold both.

Note that private health insurance and membership of the Employees' State Insurance scheme do not disqualify a 70-plus citizen from the Vay Vandana cover.

What documents are required for the Ayushman card?

How to apply for the Ayushman card online

1. Download the Ayushman App from the Play Store, or open the beneficiary portal at beneficiary.nha.gov.in.
2. Log in as Beneficiary using your mobile number and the OTP received.
3. Search for your household. Select your state, district and scheme, then search by Aadhaar number, family ID, ration card, PMJAY ID or name.
4. If your name appears with an "eKYC" or "Not verified" tag, select it and start self e-KYC.
5. Complete authentication using one of the supported modes - Aadhaar OTP, face authentication, fingerprint or iris. Face authentication is the option to use when your mobile is not linked to Aadhaar.
6. Capture the live photograph when prompted, confirm your address and family details, and submit.
7. Wait for approval by the state-level (L2) approver. Approval is usually completed within a few days.
8. Download the Ayushman card from the app or the portal once approved. A printout of the verified card is sufficient to take cashless treatment.

How to apply for the Ayushman card offline

1. Visit the Ayushman Mitra help desk at any empanelled public or private hospital, or a Common Service Centre.
2. Carry your Aadhaar card and, if available, your ration card.
3. Ask the operator to search the beneficiary database for your household and complete biometric e-KYC.
4. Collect the printed Ayushman card, or note the reference number and download the card later from the app.

There is no fee for card creation. Common Service Centres may charge only the notified government service fee.

How much benefit does PM-JAY provide?

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY provides Rs 5 lakh per family per year on a family floater basis. Within that limit the scheme pays for:

• Hospitalisation for around 2,000 medical and surgical procedures across specialities.
• Diagnostics up to 3 days before admission.
• Free drugs for 15 days after discharge.
• Doctor's fees, ICU charges, implants, food and lodging during the stay.
• All pre-existing conditions from day one, with no waiting period.

Senior citizens aged 70 and above in families already covered under PM-JAY get an additional top-up of up to Rs 5 lakh a year for themselves, so the household is not forced to share a single limit. Senior citizens in families not otherwise covered get their own Rs 5 lakh cover as a family unit of eligible seniors.

There is no premium, no enrolment fee, no co-payment and no reimbursement claim - treatment is cashless at the empanelled hospital.

How to use the Ayushman card at a hospital

1. Confirm the hospital is empanelled - the list is published on the PM-JAY hospital search at hospitals.pmjay.gov.in, and all public hospitals from Community Health Centre level upwards in implementing states are deemed empanelled.
2. Report to the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra desk with your Ayushman card and Aadhaar.
3. The Arogya Mitra verifies your identity and raises a pre-authorisation request to the State Health Agency.
4. Once approved, treatment proceeds cashless. You should not be asked to pay for any covered item.

If a hospital demands payment for a covered procedure, call 14555 and lodge a complaint immediately.

Common reasons an Ayushman card is rejected or delayed

• Household not present in the SECC or state-approved database.
• e-KYC not completed, or the live photograph failing to match Aadhaar.
• Name or date-of-birth mismatch between Aadhaar and the beneficiary record.
• Pending L2 approval at the state level, which is the most common cause of a card showing as "under process".
• Duplicate application where the household already holds a card under a different family identifier.

Corrections to name, gender or date of birth are made through the update option in the Ayushman App, and disputes about household inclusion must be raised with the State Health Agency of your state.

Help and grievance redressal

• National PM-JAY helpline: 14555 or 1800-111-565, available 24x7 since 24 August 2018
• Beneficiary portal: beneficiary.nha.gov.in
• Grievance portal: the Centralised Grievance Redressal Management System on the National Health Authority website
• At the hospital: the Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitra desk

PM-JAY is free. No hospital, agent or intermediary can charge you for making an Ayushman card or for treatment covered under the scheme.