Ayushman Bharat Yojana, officially Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), gives eligible families health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for hospital treatment at government and empanelled private hospitals. Treatment is cashless and paperless: the hospital is paid by the scheme, and the patient shows the Ayushman card or Aadhaar.
To use it, you need to be on the beneficiary list, complete eKYC and download your Ayushman card on beneficiary.nha.gov.in or the Ayushman app. Since late 2024, every Indian aged 70 or above can also get a separate Ayushman Vay Vandana card, whatever the family income. For all other schemes, see the schemes hub .
What Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY covers
- Hospital stay, surgery, ICU, medicines and diagnostics for listed treatment packages
- Up to 3 days of pre-hospitalisation and 15 days of post-hospitalisation expenses, including medicines
- Pre-existing diseases from the first day
- No limit on family size or the age of members within the family's Rs 5 lakh cover
- Portability: a card made in one state can be used at empanelled hospitals in other states
It does not cover routine OPD visits, cosmetic procedures, fertility treatment or treatments outside the package list.
Treatments included in the packages
The scheme pays hospitals according to a fixed list of health benefit packages, revised from time to time by the National Health Authority. The list spans most major specialities, for example:
- heart procedures such as angioplasty and bypass surgery,
- cancer care, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy,
- kidney care, including dialysis,
- orthopaedic surgery such as joint replacement and fracture fixation,
- neurosurgery, burns, eye surgery including cataract, and
- maternity care, including caesarean delivery, and newborn care.
Some packages are reserved for government hospitals in certain states. The Ayushman Mitra at the hospital can tell you whether your treatment is on the list before admission.
Some states run their own combined scheme together with PM-JAY (for example, Maharashtra's Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana), and these may have extra packages or higher limits.
Who is eligible for Ayushman Bharat Yojana
Eligibility is not based on a form you fill in. Families are included from databases fixed by the government:
- Rural families identified under the deprivation criteria of the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, such as households without an adult earning member, landless labour households, and SC/ST households meeting the criteria.
- Urban families listed under occupational categories of SECC 2011, such as rag pickers, domestic workers, street vendors, construction workers and similar groups.
- Families added by states from their own lists, such as ration card or welfare databases.
- Senior citizens aged 70 and above, regardless of income, through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card.
If your family is not on the list, you cannot apply to be added directly on the portal. Ask the district implementation unit or the state health agency whether your state is updating its list.
Ayushman Vay Vandana card for people aged 70+
All senior citizens aged 70 or above can get free treatment cover of up to Rs 5 lakh a year under the Vay Vandana card. If the senior citizen's family is already covered under PM-JAY, they get an additional top-up of up to Rs 5 lakh a year for themselves (shared with any other family member aged 70+). Seniors who already use CGHS, ECHS or the CAPF health scheme can choose either their existing scheme or PM-JAY. Age is taken from Aadhaar, so Aadhaar-based eKYC is required. Retired central staff can compare this with CGHS on our central pensioners news page .
How to make the Ayushman card
- Open beneficiary.nha.gov.in or install the official Ayushman app.
- Log in with your mobile number and OTP.
- Search by state, district and Aadhaar number, or by ration card or PM-JAY ID.
- If your name appears, select it and complete eKYC through Aadhaar OTP, fingerprint or face authentication.
- Upload or capture a photo if asked and submit.
- After approval, download the Ayushman card as a PDF from the same portal.
You can also get the card made free at a Common Service Centre, an empanelled hospital's Ayushman help desk, or a camp organised by the state health agency. Nobody is allowed to charge you for the card itself.
Documents to carry
- Aadhaar card of each family member who needs a card
- Mobile number linked to Aadhaar, for OTP
- Ration card or the PM-JAY letter or family ID, if your state uses one
- For the Vay Vandana card, only Aadhaar is needed, since age is read from it
Each family member gets a separate card, but all of them share the same family cover of Rs 5 lakh a year.
Using the card at a hospital
- Find an empanelled hospital through the hospital search on pmjay.gov.in or the Ayushman app.
- At the hospital, go to the Ayushman Mitra (PM-JAY help desk).
- Show your Ayushman card or Aadhaar. The desk verifies you and raises a pre-authorisation for the treatment package.
- Once approved, treatment is cashless. You should not be asked to pay for anything covered by the package.
- Keep the discharge summary and the SMS confirming the claim.
The wider Ayushman Bharat programme
PM-JAY is one part of Ayushman Bharat. The other parts are the Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (formerly Health and Wellness Centres), which provide primary care, free tests and medicines close to home, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which gives each person a 14-digit ABHA health ID to store health records digitally. ABHA is optional and is not the same as the Ayushman card.
Common problems and fixes
- Name not found: try searching by ration card number or by the head of family's name. Check spelling variants.
- eKYC failing: update your mobile number in Aadhaar, or use face authentication in the Ayushman app.
- Hospital asks for money: ask the Ayushman Mitra in writing why. If not resolved, complain through the grievance section on pmjay.gov.in or the national helpline 14555.
- Card shows "pending" after eKYC: the state health agency approves each card, which can take some days. Check again on the beneficiary portal before applying a second time, because duplicate requests slow things down.
- Cover used up: the Rs 5 lakh limit resets each policy year; any extra cost in the same year is not covered unless the state scheme adds more.
Women and families with lower incomes may qualify for other help too, listed in our women's schemes guide . For life and accident cover through your bank, read about PMJJBY, PMSBY and other government insurance , and older relatives can check the full list of benefits for people above 60 . HindiScope is not an official site; confirm your eligibility on beneficiary.nha.gov.in.