Beneficiary experience: satisfaction and barriers in Ayushman Bharat Yojana Utilization

Ayushman Bharat Yojana (ABY) is a flagship healthcare initiative in India aimed at providing accessible and affordable medical services to economically vulnerable populations. Emphasising service effectiveness, staff professionalism, specialist availability, and enrolment hurdles, this study evaluates beneficiary satisfaction and challenges in using Ayushman Bharat Yojana (ABY) services. In urban, rural, and semi-urban areas, a mixed-method research strategy combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews assessed service timeliness, healthcare accessibility, and fraud concerns. Results reveal that while 25.7% of respondents express unhappiness with service timeliness, 46.5% of respondents are satisfied with it, therefore exposing delays in the healthcare delivery. While 19.5% of respondents say they had bad encounters, 52.3% view healthcare personnel professionalism well. A big issue is specialist availability; 35.8% of respondents said specialists are hardly accessible. Of the 31.4% of respondents affected by enrolment problems, mostly lack of information (34.5%) and complicated documentation (29.7%) blame. Further restrict access are fraud concerns (26.1%), transit problems (30.8%), and excessive wait periods (29.2%). To provide fair healthcare for all beneficiaries, the report proposes simplified enrolment, enhanced specialist availability, fraud prevention policies, and better healthcare infrastructure.