India Extends Free Cancer Treatment to All Stages Under Ayushman...

The Union Health Ministry expanded the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY scheme to provide free cancer treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapy for all four stages of cancer, removing the previous Rs 5 lakh annual cap for oncology treatment. The expansion covers all cancers at government empanelled hospitals and 450 designated private cancer centres and is funded through a dedicated cancer pool created by the Finance Ministry. India records approximately 1.4 million new cancer cases annually, of which over 70% are diagnosed at stage three or four when treatment costs are highest. The expansion will benefit an estimated 600 million Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries who previously faced catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure for cancer treatment. State cancer registries have been mandated to digitise all patient data and link it to a National Cancer Intelligence Platform for population-level planning.