Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh lead the country in issuing Ayushman cards to their citizens, giving them an annual free health cover of Rs 5 lakh a family, a Moneycontrol analysis has found.
While 360 million people in the country, accounting for 26 percent of the population, had been issued Ayushman cards as of January 13, Chhattisgarh had the highest coverage of 76 percent.
Among the other larger states, Madhya Pradesh had a coverage of 48.2 percent.
With Odisha joining the fray, the scheme's coverage is expected to increase nationwide. West Bengal and Delhi are the only two states that have yet to join the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
Twelve states had over 40 percent coverage, four between 30 and 40 percent and 10 covered between 20 and 30 percent of their populations.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, had a low coverage at 21.8 percent, while only 10 percent of the population was covered in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu leads in hospitalisations
Even though southern states lag in Ayushman Bharat coverage, their utilisation was much higher. Despite having one of the lowest coverages in the country, Tamil Nadu had the highest rate of hospitalisation.
With 9 million hospital admissions, Tamil Nadu accounted for 13 percent of the 70 million admissions as of January 13 and Karnataka 10 percent.
MP leads in senior citizen registration
Madhya Pradesh was also faster in dispensing Ayushman cards to senior citizens over the age of 70, who have been promised free treatment.
The state had covered 13.7 percent of its elderly population, Moneycontrol analysis found. Kerala had covered 8.9 percent of the senior citizens and Chhattisgarh 6.7 percent.
For the rest of the country, the coverage was below 5 percent, with Telangana having the lowest coverage of 0.3 percent.
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