Vay Vandana at two: 23.46 lakh hospital admissions

Two years after Ayushman Vay Vandana opened PM-JAY to everyone aged 70 and above, the National Health Authority reports 23.46 lakh authorised admissions worth Rs 5,668.80 crore - cataract surgery the commonest, angioplasty the costliest - a utilisation count, not an outcome study.

What happened

• Ayushman Vay Vandana, launched on 29 October 2024, completed two years; it extends AB PM-JAY to all citizens aged 70 and above, irrespective of socio-economic status, through the National Health Authority.
• Cover is up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation; 70-plus members of families already in PM-JAY get a separate top-up of Rs 5 lakh; about 6 crore seniors in 4.5 crore families are eligible.
• As on 20 October 2026: 23.46 lakh authorised admissions worth Rs 5,668.80 crore.
• Cataract surgery leads by count (4.71 lakh, about 20.1 per cent), followed by chronic haemodialysis (about 2.90 lakh); PTCA leads by value (about Rs 649 crore); knee replacement, COPD, febrile illness and acute kidney injury also figure.
• The NHA says the scheme protects the elderly against the cost of specialised care and will widen publicly funded health cover as it enters its third year.

For Prelims

• AB PM-JAY: launched at Ranchi on 23 September 2018, it gives up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation, cashless, at empanelled public and private hospitals. It is implemented by the National Health Authority with State Health Agencies.
• Vay Vandana's change: PM-JAY was targeted at poorer households; Vay Vandana made age 70 the only criterion, regardless of income, with age taken from Aadhaar - opening PM-JAY to a whole age group rather than an identified poor population.
• The top-up rule: a 70-plus person in a family already covered by PM-JAY gets an extra Rs 5 lakh a year for himself or herself, which the family's younger members cannot draw on - so an older member's illness does not exhaust the family's cover.
• Utilisation in numbers: 23.46 lakh admissions worth Rs 5,668.80 crore works out to about Rs 24,160 per admission. Against about 6 crore eligible people, that is roughly one admission for every 25 eligible seniors in two years.
• What seniors use it for: cataract surgery (4.71 lakh, about 20.1 per cent of treatments) is the single most common procedure; chronic haemodialysis (about 2.90 lakh) reflects kidney disease needing repeated visits; PTCA - coronary angioplasty - is the costliest category at about Rs 649 crore.
• The demographic context: India had 10.38 crore people aged 60 and above in the 2011 Census, projected to reach about 23 crore by 2036 (MoSJE's AVYAY backgrounder of 27 October). The 70-plus group is the fastest-growing user of hospital care, which is what an age-based cover targets.
• Health and the Constitution: 'Public health and sanitation; hospitals and dispensaries' is a State List subject (Entry 6, List II). PM-JAY is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme run with State Health Agencies, so take-up depends on each State's participation and hospital network.
• Cashless and portable: PM-JAY cover can be used at any empanelled hospital across India, not only in the beneficiary's home State. Authorised admissions - the figure the NHA reports - are pre-authorised treatments, whose value may differ from what is finally paid to hospitals.

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