Misleading Claim: Ayushman Bharat Scheme Is Not Restricted to Citizens Above 70 Years

The Government of India launched Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) in September 2018. The scheme provides comprehensive coverage of up to ₹5 lakh per family annually for secondary and tertiary hospitalization care. The aim is to provide convenient and cost-effective healthcare to the economically backward people and reduce the financial burden of medical expenses. As per the latest update, about 36 crore beneficiaries have been verified under the Ayushman Bharat scheme by November 2024. Meanwhile, a claim regarding the Ayushman Bharat is going viral on social media, alleging that now only people above the age of 70 will get the benefit of Ayushman card.

Ranvijay Singh wrote, “People above 70 years of age will get the benefit of Ayushman Card. The special thing is that the average age of people in India is only about 68 years.”

आयुष्मान कार्ड का लाभ 70 साल से अधिक के लोगों को मिलेगा.

खास बात है कि भारत में लोगों की औसत उम्र ही करीब 68 साल है.

🙃

— Ranvijay Singh (@ranvijaylive) December 23, 2024

Another Mamta Rajgarh asserted, “People above 70 years of age will get the benefit of Ayushman Card. The biggest thing is that the average age of people in India is only about 68 years.”

आयुष्मान कार्ड का लाभ 70 साल से अधिक के लोगों को मिलेगा.
सबसे बडी बात है कि भारत में लोगों की औसत उम्र ही करीब 68 साल है. pic.twitter.com/DFgdJCAUZu

— ममता राजगढ़ (@rajgarh_mamta1) December 23, 2024

This claim was also shared by several other users like Bhawani Singh, Charu and Sanjeev Kumar.

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Fact Check

In our fact check research, on the website of the National Health Authority (NHA), which is the official platform for information related to the Ayushman Bharat scheme, we checked the criteria outlined to become eligible for the Ayushman card. As per the criteria/coverage section, the scheme provides beneficiaries to recipients in both rural and urban areas determined by specific socio-economic and occupational criteria.

Ayushman Bharat uses specific conditions such as deprivation criteria, which identifies families based on poor living conditions, and inclusion criteria that focus on people engaged in low-income jobs to determine who qualifies for this scheme. This criterion is based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, which ranks families based on socio-economic conditions, and determines their eligibility for welfare schemes.

The deprivation criteria for rural areas under PM-JAY are as follows, and recipients must fulfill any one of the criteria:

1. DI: Households with only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof.
2. D2: Households with no adult members between the ages of 16 to 59.
3. D3: Households with no adult male member between ages 16 to 59.
4. D4: Households with Disabled member and no able-bodied adult member.
5. D5: Scheduled Castes (SC) or Scheduled Tribes (ST) households.
6. D6: Landless households deriving a major part of their income from manual casual labour.

Apart from deprivation criteria, the inclusion criteria under Ayushman Bharat applies to families who depend on alms for survival, manual scavenger families, primitive tribal groups, legally freed bonded labourers.

For urban areas, the Ayushman Bharat criteria are based on specific labor divisions where individuals are engaged in non-formal, minimum-wage and unsafe jobs. The criteria include ragpickers, beggars, domestic workers, street vendors, cobblers, hawkers and other service providers working on the streets. Additionally, it includes construction workers, plumbers, masons, labourers, painters, welders, security guards, porters and other head-load workers. The scheme is also applicable to those who work as sweepers, sanitation workers, gardeners, home-workers, artisans, handicrafts and tailors. Other occupational categories that are eligible are transport workers (drivers, conductors, helpers, cart pullers, rickshaw pullers), shop workers, helpers, peons in small establishments, helpers, delivery assistants, attendants or waiters

Further, we found that in a significant development, the Ayushman Bharat eligibility criteria was expanded in September 2024. Under this new expansion, health insurance coverage up to Rs 5 lakh will be provided to all senior citizens above the age of 70, irrespective of the class or income group they belong to. However, senior citizens who are already being benefitted from other public health care schemes, must choose between the existing coverage and the new Ayushman Bharat heath insurance.

Moreover, several categories of people, such as those with high incomes, significant assets (such as vehicles, land, or concrete houses), or government jobs, are not eligible for this healthcare coverage.

In conclusion, the benefits of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana are available to all marginalized families, including poor families, Dalits and tribal communities, disabled persons, landless families, beggars, and garbage collectors in both urban and rural areas. Additionally, the Government of India announced in September that senior citizens aged 70 years or above will be provided health insurance coverage under this scheme, regardless of their class or category. Hence, the claim that senior citizens above the age of 70 years are only eligible for this scheme is misleading.

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