Himachal Pradesh health secretary Amitabh Awasthi said that a special campaign is being carried out in the state under Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana to issue “Golden Cards”.

He said that under this campaign, camps have been organized to issue cards and the department is also issuing cards by visiting the houses of eligible candidates.

Awasthi said that under this special campaign started from 19 November, 2020, Golden Cards have been issued to 29660 families (67520 persons). Golden Cards have been issued to 74.2 percent families whereas in India this figure is 49.6 percent.

The Health department has targeted to issue Golden Cards to the remaining families by 31 March, 2021.

The Secretary Health said that Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana was launched by the Government of India on 23 September, 2018.

This ambitious scheme is also being implemented in Himachal Pradesh from 23 September, 2018. Under the scheme, there is a provision of free treatment facility of upto rupees five lakh on hospitalization.

He said that at present 200 hospitals in the state are registered under this scheme, out of which 64 are private hospitals. Beneficiaries can also avail free medical treatment facility anywhere in the hospitals registered by other states or Union Territories across India.

He said that for this scheme families have been selected based on the social, economic caste census, 2011 and National Health Insurance scheme (2014-15) and about 1579 representations have been included for free treatment. Day-care surgeries have also been included in it. Under the scheme the eligible families have been selected by the Government of India and about 4,78,985 families are eligible in the state out of which Golden Cards of 3,56,372 families have been made. He said that under the scheme 81,898 beneficiaries have received the benefit of free medical treatment worth Rs. 87.26 crore in the State.

Awasthi said that under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, issuing Golden Cards is a routine process and eligible families can prepare their Aadhar Cards and Ration Cards at nearest Lokmitra Kendra.

He said that due to Covid Pandemic the work of issuing Golden Cards has been affected and the Cards could not be issued to the eligible families as it was mandatory for the beneficiaries to visit nearest hospital or Lokmitra Kendra to prepare the Cards.

He said that under this scheme, if the beneficiary has not prepared a Golden Card then the hospital issues him the Golden Card immediately at the time of treatment, so that they could avail the benefit of free treatment. He said that to know about eligibility one can contact toll free No. 14555 and can login the website mera.pmjdy.gov.in.