People throng at centres in J-K's Kathua to register for 'Golden Card' to avail Ayushman Bharat- PMJAY benefits

Hundreds of people on Friday gathered at centres in Kathua to register for 'Golden Card' to avail the benefits under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) through which eligible people on the basis of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 can avail medical facilities up to Rs 5 lakh free of cost.

The 'Golden Card' containing all required information of the patient is required while availing the treatment at the empanelled hospital under AB-PMJAY.

A camp was orgsed to facilitate the registration for 'Golden Card' at Government Medical College, Kathua on Friday. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on December 26 launched AB-PMJAY SEHAT scheme for the residents of Jammu and Kashmir, via video conferencing.

People who came for the registration extended their gratitude to the administration for orgsing the camp and also thanked Prime Minister Modi for the scheme.

"This is a very good scheme. Treatment costs in private hospitals have gone up. Prime Minister dedicated this scheme to us which will provide health care coverage plan to the poor. It will help us in the coming days," Tirath Singh, one of the person, who came to the camp for registration told .

Shilpa Sharma, who also came for the registration said, "Prime Minister helped us by giving us this scheme. Now, we can get affordable treatment of disease. It will be useful for us."

Hem Sharma, who came with her family for the registration, said that this scheme would save their money being spent on health.

"It is a very good scheme and we all will get the benefits of it. This scheme will help us in saving the money which we spend on healthcare," she said.

According to the orgsers of the camp, over 500 beneficiaries were registered during the camp. People went for the registration with their required documents such as Aadhar card, Ration card to fulfill the formalities of the documentation.

AB-PMJAY has empanelled at least 219 hospitals including 34 private hospitals for providing health services to residents of Jammu and Kashmir under the scheme. Medical procedures such as oncology, cardiology, nephrology are included in the scheme.

Under the portability feature of AB-PMJAY, the beneficiaries can avail services from any of the 24,148 empanelled hospitals across the country.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a flagship health scheme of the central government and provides a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. It covers 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (about 53 crore beneficiaries). Launched in 2018, about 1.5 crore beneficiaries have received medical treatment in hospital under the scheme.

( With inputs from ANI )