Union Home Minister has rolled out the ‘Ayushman CAPF’ scheme, extending the benefit of the central health insurance programme to the personnel of all Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in the country.

Who are the CAPFs?

• The CAPFs refers to uniform nomenclature of five security forces in India under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Their role is to defend the national interest mainly against the internal threats.
• They are the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

Ayushman CAPF

• Under this scheme, around 28 lakh personnel of CAPF, Assam Rifles and National Security Guard (NSG) and their families will be covered by ‘Ayushman Bharat: PM Jan Arogya Yojana’ (AB PM-JAY).
• For the CAPF, the existing health coverage was not comprehensive as compared to other military forces.

Do you know?

The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) as stated in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs no. 3) is one of the most significant commitments to equitable quality healthcare for all.

About Ayushman Bharat

• PM-JAY aims to provide free access to healthcare for 40% of people in the country.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme and is jointly funded by both the union government and the states.
• It was launched in September 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The ministry has later established the National Health Authority as an organization to administer the program.

Key features:

• Providing health coverage for 10 crores households or 50 crores Indians.
• It provides a cover of 5 lakh per family per year for medical treatment in empanelled hospitals, both public and private.
• Offering cashless payment and paperless recordkeeping through the hospital or doctor’s office.
• Using criteria from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 to determine eligibility for benefits.
• There is no restriction on family size, age or gender.
• All previous medical conditions are covered under the scheme.
• It covers 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days of post-hospitalization, including diagnostic care and expenses on medicines.
• The scheme is portable and a beneficiary can avail medical treatment at any PM-JAY empanelled hospital outside their state and anywhere in the country.

Note these features. They cannot be memorized all of sudden but can be recognized if a tricky MCQ comes in the prelims.

Must read:

[Burning Issue] Ayushmaan Bharat

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