Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Every Indian should get insurance protection' that was published in Newsband

Every Indian should get insurance protection

There was an announcement in the Union Budget of an insurance scheme against catastrophic health expenditure for the weaker sections. Budget 2016-17 takes the incremental step of introducing some insurance protection against high out-of-pocket expenditure that pushes families into poverty. A significant number of young Indians aged 23 to 35 are not buying health insurance since they find it expensive. There is a challenge also to scale up dialysis access. Besides equipping district hospitals with the necessary machines, training of medical professionals to closely monitor patients availing the service is vital.

Affordable health insurance is need of time. The health insurance should cover all sections. Especially health insurance premium for senior citizens is heavy and unaffordable. Let the government frame affordable group insurance in health sector.

Healthcare apparently is governments priority but individual health policies are charged service tax at the rate of 14%. In a country like ours where majority meet their health care expenses out of their own pockets, government should exempt health policies from service tax

Indian experts should study the countries with best healthcare system and accordingly devise an affordable system for the poor and middle class in India.

One of the biggest problem in public health sector provided by the government is lack of medical professionals. One of the main reasons for this is the coming of profit-oriented medical corporations and private individuals in the health sector. The public sector doctors are among the highest paid employees in government sector. But the immense opportunity and salary provided by disproportionate profit of the private health sector has led to the drain of medical professionals from government to private sector. In this situation, it should be mandatory for medical professionals to work in public health sector for at least five years in their whole professional life.

The Universal Health Coverage concept is good in the Indian context. Health insurance premiums are high in India and also the insured find more difficulties in getting claims. Also there is little awareness towards health insurance schemes and the government takes the initiatives to provide free insurance on which cashless treatment is given for important diseases for which the common man has to spend in lakhs and such cost is beyond his income pattern. Hence the Central Government with the co-ordination of states must announce populist health insurance programmes for which there is easy access. The dialysis scheme is good for the poor people pertinent to their affordability.