Over 22 lakh get cataract surgery under Ayushman Bharat

New Delhi: Over 22 lakh Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries used the flagship family insurance scheme for cataract surgeries, which remain the most popular treatment option that people availed in the last six years, according to the Union Health Ministry data released here on Monday.

Cataract surgery is followed by breast cancer surgery (5.61 lakh), coronary angioplasty (4.71 lakh), urinary tract stone removal (3.77 lakh) and deliveries for high risk pregnancy (1.69 lakh).

These are the top five medical procedures that people from poor socio-economic backgrounds opted for under the government-funded insurance scheme, which would now be extended to people above 70 years from October.

A few other commonly used treatments funded by the scheme are gallbladder surgery, removal of appendix, knee replacement surgery and lung cancer.

Over 7.79 crore hospital admissions were authorised in the last six years for treatments worth more than Rs 107,000 crores, health ministry sources said at the sixth anniversary of the launch of the popular programme. More than 3.61 crore of these admissions were utilised by women.

Earlier this year, an assessment of the Ayushman Bharat programme by researchers from Maastricht University and Manipal Academy of Higher Education showed the scheme was effective in reducing the financial burden and improving the affordability of cardiac procedures compared to private insurance.

The researchers studied over 1,000 patients reaching a tertiary care hospital in Karnataka and found that the programme helped reduce the out of pocket expenditure burden and ensured equitable healthcare access.

As of now the Ayushman Bharat offers coverage for 1,949 medical procedures across 27 medical specialities such as General Medicine, Surgery, Oncology and Cardiology.

Hospital services, including drugs (covering 15 days of medication post-discharge), diagnostics (up to three days before admission), food, and lodging, are provided at no cost to the beneficiaries.

The scheme is being implemented in all but three states. While West Bengal and Delhi are still out of the scheme, talks are on with the new BJP-led government in Odisha to come onboard.

As many as 18 States have converged their state specific schemes with the Ayushman Bharat programme, while four states – UP, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Nagaland run their state employee schemes in convergence with Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna hospitals and IT platform.

The integration of Karnataka’s Karnataka Arogya Sanjeevani Scheme in the National Health Agency’s IT platform is currently in progress.