Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2026, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, informed Parliament that over 447.3 million Ayushman cards have now been generated under the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), and that as of 30 June 2026, the scheme had authorised 126.9 million hospital admissions worth INR 1,920 billion. A post on this blog in December 2020 ( PMJAY: Average cost per treatment is 2.5 per cent of the sum assured ) ran a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation. At that time, the scheme had recorded about 14 million admissions worth INR 175 billion, averaging INR 12,500 per admitted patient. The question raised then was whether a scheme whose average claim was this modest really needed a headline cover of up to INR 500,000 per family per year. Five and a half years on, the same arithmetic is worth repeating. The average cost of treatment has increased from INR 12,500 to INR 15,130. On the face of it,...