Income Tax Budget 2025 Live Updates: Will FM Nirmala Sitharaman offer senior citizens relief with Ayushman Bharat Yojana?

Budget 2025 Live Updates: The Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme has been a key project of the PM Narendra Modi-led government. The Economic Survey 2024-25, tabled on Friday in the Parliament, stated that the Ayushman Bharat scheme presently covers over 40% of the most vulnerable populations, thereby covering approximately 55 crore people.

AB PM-JAY provides cashless cover of up to Rs 5,00,000/- to each eligible family per annum. Note that this cover is offered on a floater basis, i.e., the coverage is shared by all members of a single family. 

The scheme covers the following treatments:

Medical examination, treatment, and consultation
Pre-hospitalisation
Medicine and medical consumables
Diagnostic and laboratory investigations
Accommodation benefits
Complications arising during treatment
Post-hospitalisation follow-up care up to 15 days.

Budget 2025 live updates: FM Sitharaman to table her eighth budget; tax revision on the cards?

Will there be some changes in the Budget 2025?

Healthcare experts believe that strengthening health insurance coverage through initiatives like Ayushman Bharat, focusing on patient care and life-sustaining treatments like dialysis, will play a key role in alleviating the financial burden on patients and their families.

Expanding health insurance to encompass a wider demographic, specifically in rural and underprivileged areas, can help address discrepancies in healthcare provision. By offering premium subsidies for low-income households and encouraging private sector involvement, essential healthcare services such as dialysis can become more affordable and readily available.

Pankaj Tandon, Promoter, Founder & CFO, VitusCare, said: "This year’s budget must take bold steps to prioritize the health and well-being of citizens by ensuring universal health coverage, reducing out-of-pocket expenditures, and creating a robust ecosystem for preventive and curative care."

Features of AB-PMJAY

The scheme covers over 120 million families, which equates to around 550 million individuals, making it the largest health insurance program globally. It provides annual hospitalisation benefits of up to Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care.

Launched to tackle health disparities, the AB-PMJAY focuses on the most economically disadvantaged population groups identified in the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011. By taking a comprehensive and needs-based approach, this initiative aligns with India's commitment to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to ensure inclusivity for all.

According to a recent report, as of January 1 2025, more than 363.6 million Ayushman cards have been distributed as part of the program.

The AB-PMJAY expansion was official on September 11, 2024, granting senior citizens aged 70 and older access regardless of their socio-economic standing. This extension offers complimentary healthcare coverage amounting to Rs 5 lakh per family, benefiting an estimated six crore senior citizens from 4.5 crore families, irrespective of their income. Eligible seniors will be provided with a Vay Vandana Card for exclusive access to the scheme's advantages.