Ayushman Bharat

Ayushman Bharat, launched in 2017 is a pioneering initiative which aims to have a holistic approach towards healthcare comprising mainly two pillars.
First is the creation of about 1.5 lac wellness centres that aims to facilitate primary healthcare facilities and should be at an accessible distance to everyone.

The second one is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Yojna , a scheme by Indian Government’s National Health Policy which aims to provide free health coverage to the poor and vulnerable population in the tier 2 & tier 3 cities. This was launched in September 2018 and is the world’s largest and fully sponsored health scheme which covers a population of 50cr Indians. The scheme allows a health insurance of Rs 5 lac annually per family for those who fall under this category. Despite the availability of government hospitals across every state, the healthcare sector of India fails to provide the required attention to the poor and vulnerable families and hence many a times, these people are forced to visit the private hospitals where the expense incurred can be a life time saving of the entire family or sometimes even more than that. This scheme aims to lower the mental and economic burden that most poor families have to go through because of their inability to bear the medical expenses and thus falling into the trap of loan sharks.

The scheme also focuses on gender equality or to state in a better way- women empowerment. Amongst the various criterias for being entitled to the scheme includes families with no adult male members along with various health packages that exclusively benefit women.

Under this scheme, all public hospitals in the states are empanelled. Hospitals belonging to Employee State Insurance Corporation may also be empanelled based on the bed occupancy ratio parameter. There are almost 10,627 public hospitals and 9,124 private hospitals as of December 2019 empanelled under this scheme. The empanelment of hospitals is a continuous process.

One such group of hospitals empanelled under PM-JAY scheme is Ujala Cygnus Hospitals, earlier known as Cygnus Medicare. Cygnus Medicare in association with Amar Ujala merged to become Ujala Cygnus in order to facilitate better healthcare facilities in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities across India. The organization currently boasts to have around 12 units across North India and is deemed to expand further in near future.

Having an interest in serving the needs of the poor when it comes to healthcare, Cygnus Medicare was one of the first hospitals to be empanelled under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Yojna scheme. The urge to provide the best healthcare to the vulnerable citizens of India was the reason behind the swift decision making. As an organization, the main focus is on
volume and sustainable profits rather than profiteering and Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY provides the best opportunity.

India healthcare has emerged as one of the largest sectors with maximum expenditure incurred and an astounding 60% of it still goes from the pocket of the individual. While most can bear their medical expenses, there is still a large number of people who are deprived of receiving even the primary care at a proper healthcare unit. With the ethos of providing the best and affordable healthcare being accessible to all along with the support of government initiative, the organization hopes to address the existing gap and improve the crumbling public health infrastructure.