The 2024 expansion of Ayushman Bharat changed eligibility for hospital cover at age 70. Eligibility no longer depended on belonging to a low-income household. Age became the qualifying condition, with the Union Cabinet approving the extension on 11 September. The government estimated that six crore older people in 4.5 crore families could qualify. That was the population the policy sought to reach, not a count of people already enrolled. [1]
The Ayushman Vay Vandana card was launched on 29 October 2024. It extended an existing hospital-care programme rather than creating a separate system of hospitals for older patients. Within less than two months, the health ministry reported 25 lakh enrolments and treatment worth more than ₹40 crore for over 22,000 senior citizens. The procedures included hip replacements, cataract surgery, angioplasty and dialysis. [2]
What the cover means
The standard entitlement is up to ₹5 lakh a year on a family basis. Where a family already has PM-JAY coverage, its members aged 70 and above receive an additional ₹5 lakh pool reserved for them. It is not an individual ₹5 lakh payment to every older person. [1]
Existing insurance arrangements also matter. People covered by CGHS, ECHS or the CAPF health scheme must choose between that arrangement and PM-JAY. Private insurance or Employees’ State Insurance does not itself disqualify an eligible senior citizen. [1]
The National Health Authority’s enrolment FAQ uses the age recorded in Aadhaar and requires Aadhaar-based electronic verification. Its family-registration process allows another eligible older member to be added after the first enrolment. These administrative steps sit between a national entitlement and a card that can be used. [3]
Coverage begins from enrolment without a waiting period. The ministry also explicitly included pre-existing diseases from the first day, a consequential provision for people entering the programme late in life. [2]
From eligibility to admissions
A parliamentary reply provides a later, dated view. By 31 December 2025, more than 96.73 lakh cards had been created. Hospitals had received authorisation for 10.33 lakh admissions worth ₹2,154.37 crore. This article uses that year-end checkpoint; the figures are not a live October 2026 tally. [4]
Those numbers describe different stages of access. A card records enrolment. An authorised admission records permission for hospital care and can include repeat admissions by the same person. The sanctioned value is not, on its own, evidence that every claim was settled or every household avoided additional spending. The reply does not measure those outcomes. [4]
The programme’s underlying benefit remains secondary and tertiary hospital treatment. For an older household, the useful protection is therefore tied to an episode of covered care, its available family balance and a hospital able to provide the treatment. The new age rule widened the door; the journey through it still runs through the hospital system. [4]