After Kerala and Punjab, Chandigarh is leading in private hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana ABPMJAY for universal health scheme coverage in the country. Out of 26 empanelled hospitals under universal health coverage, 18 are private hospitals, while the remaining are public hospitals. Across the country, 41.2% are private empanelled hospitals, while 58.8% are government hospitals.

In Punjab, out of 878 empanelled hospitals, 72% are private, quite like Kerala, where, out of 712 such hospitals, 73% are private. Latest figures indicate that more than 2 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 24k crore have been authorised under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. Also, around 23,000 hospitals have been empanelled under the scheme.

Ayushman Bharat was launched in Chandigarh on September 23, 2019:

• Apart from the financial cover, the scheme focuses on prevention of diseases, mainly non-communicable ones like diabetes, hypertension and lifestyle-related conditions.

• The scheme is aimed at reducing out-of-pocket expenditure. AB-PMJAY is a flagship scheme of Government of India, which provides health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to those below poverty line.