Minister of State (IC) for Ayush, Prataprao Jadhav
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Union Government is working on the inclusion of an AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) package under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
AB PM-JAY aims to provide health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to approximately 55 crore beneficiaries corresponding to 12.34 crore families constituting the bottom 40% of the population.
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“Aspects of the AYUSH package integration — such as package design and cost, AYUSH hospital onboarding, standard treatment guidelines, objectively defined treatment outcomes and financial implications among others — are under discussion. Wider stakeholder consultations involving implementing States/UTs have been held,” said Minister of State (IC) for Ayush, Prataprao Jadhav, in the Lok Sabha recently.
The Minister said public health is a State subject and the primary responsibility to ensure the availability of AYUSH treatment lies with State/UT governments.
However, the Ministry is implementing the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Ayush Mission (NAM) through State/UT governments for development and promotion of AYUSH system.
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According to the information presented in the Lok Sabha, “Central government employees and pensioners enrolled in the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) can have access to healthcare services through allopathic as well as AYUSH. At present, CGHS runs 110 Ayush Wellness Centres along with one Ayurvedic Hospital in India. Additionally, 20 yoga internees provide consultations to beneficiaries at various CGHS Wellness Centres.”
