NEW DELHI: The Centre's flagship health insurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), is gradually shaping up as the umbrella scheme for all health schemes in the country, with many central government ones already aligned, and talks on for several others. What's more, the AB-PMJAY coverage is also likely to be doubled to 10 lakh in days to come.

Major central government health schemes like the Employees' State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) and the Central Government Health Services (CGHS) have already been aligned with the PMJAY. And discussions are on to align others like the Building and Other Construction Workers (BoCW) and Ex- Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), besides several existing state government health

As many as 157 districts have started work to onboard ESIS ben- eficiaries on the platform of the National Health Authority (NHA), the apex body responsible for implementing the PMJAY, said the source quoted above. The NHA could not be reached for a comment.

The NHA has been entrusted with designing a strategy, building technological infrastructure, and implementing the National Digital Health Mission to create a National Digital Health Ecosystem.

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) had in 2021 entered into a partnership with the NHA to create an ecosystem where ESI beneficiaries might access services at hospitals empanelled with the AB-PMJAY, and vice versa. 

Meanwhile, in a move to integrate various government health schemes under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare earlier this month mandated the linking of CGHS beneficiary ID with the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) ID. The linking of the IDs is mandatory from April 1, 2024, and it is to be completed within 30 days by all existing CGHS beneficiaries. More than 4.4 million people in 75 cities are covered under the CGHS scheme, which provides comprehensive health care services to central govern- ment employees, pensioners, and their dependent family members. Of them, the CGHS IDs of 126,707 had already been linked with ABHA IDs as on April 21, accord- ing to information available on the CGHS dashboard.

The ABHA ID is a 14-digit number that uniquely identifies a beneficiary in Indias digital health care ecosystem. All citizens can open and operate ABHA accounts