All you need to know about health cover for elderly above 70

The largest health insurance scheme to those above 70 years offers ₹25 lakh free health cover per family per annum and the annual premium is ₹1,102/beneficiary

- BENN KOCHUVEEDAN

IN a major step towards ushering in universal healthcare, irrespective of the age of the insured, the government last week extended the free health cover under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)the world's largest health insurance scheme--to those 70 and above, and has allocated an initial budget of ₹3,437 crore to fund the additional requirements.

According to the 2011 Census, 8.6% or 103 million of the then 1.23 billion were above 60 and this number is seen more than doubling to 19.5% or 319 million by 2050. Though there is no official data available for the number of citizens above 70, according to private estimates, they number around 55 million or around 45 million families. While close to 58% of these elderly are women and 54% of them are widows too, according to NITI Aayog.