Ayushman Bharat to Roll Out in West Bengal from July, Says Chief Secretary Manoj Agrawal

In a major healthcare policy shift, West Bengal has officially joined the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), bringing the state's beneficiaries under the world's largest government-funded health insurance scheme.

Speaking after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Agrawal said the state government has decided to implement Ayushman Bharat despite previously opting out of the scheme in favor of its own healthcare program.

"The scheme was launched nationwide in 2018, but the West Bengal government had said they would not implement it because they had their own scheme. However, their scheme was quite limited," Agrawal stated.

Highlighting a major concern with the previous arrangement, he noted that health cards issued under the state's scheme were not valid outside West Bengal, affecting nearly 50 to 60 lakh migrant workers and families from the state who live and work across India.

"The cards issued by the state government to the 50–60 lakh people from Bengal who work outside the state were not valid anywhere. Now, the current government has decided to implement this scheme," he added.

The Chief Secretary confirmed that the MoU was signed on Sunday and that the distribution of Ayushman Bharat cards will commence from the first week of July. He assured citizens that the enrollment and card issuance process would be conducted with complete transparency.

The inclusion of West Bengal in PM-JAY completes the nationwide rollout of the flagship healthcare scheme and is expected to provide cashless medical coverage to around 1.43 crore families across the state.

The move is likely to benefit millions of beneficiaries, especially migrant workers, by enabling access to healthcare services across empanelled hospitals throughout India under a single national health insurance framework.