Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) has delivered medical treatment worth ₹291 crore to about 1.8 lakh patients in West Bengal since the scheme went live in the state on 16 August 2026, according to official figures reported this week. The numbers offer the first clear picture of how quickly the Centre’s flagship health assurance programme is being taken up in a state that stayed outside it for nearly eight years.

West Bengal had held back from AB-PMJAY since its national launch in 2018, relying instead on its own Swasthya Sathi health cover. The rollout this August followed a change in the state government and was launched alongside a separate state-run Chief Minister’s health insurance scheme.

The numbers so far

• ₹291 crore in medical services delivered to beneficiaries since 16 August
• About 1.8 lakh patients treated or admitted under the scheme
• 4.13 crore residents issued Ayushman Bharat health cards, with roughly 1.8 crore more applications pending
• About 2,500 hospitals in West Bengal linked to the scheme, part of a national network of around 40,000
• ₹426 crore allocated by the Centre and ₹284 crore by the state for implementation

The state’s separate Chief Minister’s health insurance initiative has reportedly drawn applications from nearly 2.5 crore people, pointing to strong demand for publicly funded hospital cover in the state.

Portability in action

One of the scheme’s defining features, national portability, is already showing up in the data. Around 4,600 of the patients treated so far received care at empanelled hospitals outside West Bengal. Because AB-PMJAY runs on a common national platform for beneficiary verification, pre-authorisation and claims, a cardholder from Bengal can walk into a participating hospital in another state and receive cashless treatment under the same package rates.

The pace has picked up sharply since the first month. In September, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said more than 50,000 people had been hospitalised under the scheme, with treatment worth over ₹28 crore. At that point, 1,102 patients had travelled outside the state for care, while 1,849 patients from other states had been treated at hospitals in Bengal.

Why it matters

For India’s digital health ecosystem, Bengal’s entry closes one of the biggest remaining gaps on the AB-PMJAY map and brings a large new population onto the shared rails of health cards, digital claims and, increasingly, ABHA-linked records under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. The early numbers suggest strong enrolment and rising hospital use.

The harder test will come next: whether the state can keep enough hospital beds available for scheme patients, settle claims on time for empanelled private hospitals, and make sure quality care reaches poorer families outside Kolkata. Smooth integration between the national platform and the state’s own insurance scheme will also matter, so patients and hospitals are not left juggling two systems.

Photo: Kolkata Medical College Hospital main entrance. Credit: Billjones94 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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