On 7 June 2026, the Government of India announced that West Bengal would become the 36th State or Union Territory to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM JAY), the worlds largest publicly funded health assurance scheme. A formal Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between the National Health Authority under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of West Bengal at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on 8 June 2026.

With the signing of the MoU, approximately 1.36 crore families in West Bengal will be brought under the scheme, as announced by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. AB PM JAY provides health insurance coverage of up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation across an empanelled network of public and private hospitals through cashless treatment. The scheme covers around 1949 specified medical procedures and is portable across India.

West Bengal had earlier stayed out of AB PM JAY since its launch in 2018 citing its own State health scheme Swasthya Sathi as an adequate alternative. The decision to onboard now is expected to extend financial protection against catastrophic health expenditure to millions of additional eligible beneficiaries in the State and enable seamless portability of healthcare benefits when residents travel or migrate to other parts of the country. The empanelment of West Bengal hospitals will also strengthen the national pool of treatment providers under AB PM JAY.