Ayushman Bharat Yojana: You can get your Ayushman Card in just 15 minutes; check details

In October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the expansion of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) to cover health insurance for individuals aged 70 years and above, irrespective of their income level. To facilitate this extension, the Center introduced the Ayushman Vaya Vandana card, which offers an additional annual cover of Rs 5 lakh to senior citizens above 70 years of age. This coverage will be shared among multiple elderly beneficiaries in a household.

According to the latest government data, in the 11 days after the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) was extended to individuals aged 70 years and above, there has been a significant increase in registrations of elderly beneficiaries. Data from the National Health Authority shows that around 6.5 lakh elderly individuals have successfully registered and received Ayushman cards during this period. While Kerala remains at the forefront in registration of senior citizens, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana follow closely behind.

The Ayushman Vaya Vandana card aims to provide free medical services to elderly individuals living in large institutions. This initiative is designed to help senior citizens access high-quality medical treatment when they need it. The card is given to all elderly people over the age of 70, regardless of their income level. This ensures that every elderly person, regardless of their economic situation, can receive free hospital treatment. To register, eligible applicants can apply online through the official Ayushman Yojana Portal or mobile application. It takes 15 minutes to get the card.

Here are a few simple steps to sign up for Ayushman Vaya Vandana card:

1. Go to the official website of the National Health Authority.
2. Log in to the homepage with the provided captcha code, enter your mobile number and authenticate to get OTP. After entering the OTP and the second captcha code, continue with the login process. This step can be completed by the beneficiary or the operator.
3. On the next screen, select the relevant options from the drop-down menus for schema, state, subschema, county, and search criteria.
4. If no details are found, select ‘clear here for registration’ for seniors aged 70 and over.
5. On the next screen, enter your Aadhaar number, captcha code and click ‘search’. If the details are not in the database, a message will appear at the bottom asking you to click ’70 new records’. Click on it.
6. The next screen will display the e-KYC option (AadC OTP, Fingerprint and Iris). Applicants have the flexibility to choose any of the available options. For the purpose of this guide, we will focus on the AadC OTP. Please verify your AadC number, after reviewing it thoroughly, select the consent box and then click ‘Allow’.
7. An OTP will be sent to both the AadC linked mobile number and the user’s mobile number. Please enter these OTPs in the designated boxes.
8. Once e-KYC is successfully completed, a confirmation message will appear saying ‘e-KYC successfully completed’. You are eligible for the AB PM-JAY 70 years or more programme’. Select the relevant beneficiary option such as CGHS, CAPF or none of the above or alternatively declare yourself and provide the required information in the box provided to proceed.
9. Once the e-KYC process is successfully verified, the system will provide information such as the beneficiary’s name, father’s name, date of birth, etc. It will automatically receive information such as However, the beneficiary will need to take a photograph for archival purposes and provide additional details. Including mobile number, category, pin code, address and comprehensive information about all family members before finalizing and submitting the form. Please note that these details are mandatory and must be completed in full before submission.
10. After a successful submission, the process will be completed and a pop-up message will appear on the screen stating that ‘e-KYC’ has been successfully completed. Please allow some time to download the Ayushman card’. The card will be available for senior citizens to download after 15 minutes.

Launched on September 23, 2018, the EU PM-JAY scheme is the largest publicly funded health assurance scheme globally, offering annual health insurance of Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary hospitalization to 55 crore individuals, equivalent to 12.34 crore families . All eligible family members are covered under the scheme, regardless of their age. Till date, there have been 7.37 crore hospitalizations under the scheme and 49% of the beneficiaries were women. The program has provided the public with over Rs. 1 lakh crore in benefits.