Generating Ayushman Card for Senior Citizens

 Though the extension of Ayushman coverage to Senior Citizens (70 years and above, not above 60) was announced long ago, the actual registration only started a couple of days ago after inauguration by the PM.  My efforts to enroll myself had started earlier than the inauguration and all that I could achieve was registration on the ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) leading to issuance of an ABHA card and id linked to my Aadhaar, as I was not shown as eligible on the ayushman portal.  This was done on abha.abdm.gov.in.  ABDM stands for Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.  ABHA is merely a centralised health record for you that can be viewed by healthcare professionals authorised by you.

Later when registering for Ayushman after its inauguration, I found that the registration process asked for two OTPs, one generated by UIDAI for your Aadhaar authentication and the other generated by ABDM for validating your ABHA number.  This would seem to suggest that ABHA registration is a prerequisite for Ayushman.  However, a search on Google shows that it is not so and ABHA is not a prerequisite for Ayushman.  So I suggest that you proceed for Ayushman card directly.  If it goes through, you don't have to go through the hassle of creating ABHA account.  If it doesn't you can go and complete ABHA registratrion and revert to Ayushman.  

In fact in the final step, it gives a checkbox for creating your ABHA account and linking it to your Aadhaar.  So you need not go to ABHA creation first.

For Ayushman the process is simple.  Go to https://beneficiary.nha.gov.in/ and log in using your mobile number.  Alternatively you can download the Ayushman app and use it for this process.  The page that opens after login has a button for registration by seniors.  Do not input anything in the displayed boxes and directly click that button and complete the form that opens next.  In our case who do not belong to the Below Poverty Line group, the family ID has to be left blank.After successful registration you will get a message saying that your card will be ready after some time.  You can return the next day and download your card.

Why Must We Have Different Income Tax Rules for Seniors.

That old people in the final phase of limited human life span need a different treatment is recognized by the Medical Science too which has a separate branch for them called geriatrics.  Financial advisers too advise old and retired people differently as their risk appetite and needs are different and the time span under consideration is shorter.  Thus it is surprising that the government doesn't discriminate between retired and working people when it comes to taxing their income.  Some minor concessions given to them earlier are being gradually wiped out.

The first point of contention is the rebate given on long term investments.  These are often used by government to show that the actual income on which you need not pay any taxes is far more than the exemption limit.  It is indeed prudent and advisable for a young working man to set aside a sizeable part of his / her income for a reasonable retirement corpus in old age.  But to ask an old person who may not have much more than 5 years of life span left is illogical.  For a senior citizen it is time to draw down his savings to supplement his reduced income and she can hardly afford to set aside a large chunk of her income just to get tax rebates.  Thus it will be reasonable to raise the exemption limit for seniors over that for working people by the amount of total deductions for investments and savings that are permitted.

Again, contrary to what is believed by working people, expenses tend to go up after retirement.  There are several reasons for it.  When young you are able to do most of daily chores yourself.  However an old person with much lower energy levels one has to depend on domestic help.  One may also need a driver or have to depend on expensive private transport.  Visits to doctors become more frequent and the expenses go up not only on consultation but also on medicines and supplements which more than make up for any reduction in your grocery and food bills.

While working most of us were unable to attend many social engagements like marriage, birth of a child and many of the numerous celebrations that keep taking place in the immediate and extended family.  Once retired the calls on you to participate and give your blessings grow frequent and louder.  Now, we all know that social commitments also call for a substantial financial commitment.  In fact, expenses on social and family events form a huge part of expenditure in your budget.

Thus it can not be gainsaid that seniors also require a much larger standard deduction compared to young working people.

My submission is that it will be reasonable to give seniors a standard deduction of 2 lakhs along with an exemption limit of 8 lakhs. Also these limits should be linked to inflation and get automatically revised.