Reform
the public health system
The government intends to launch the world’s
largest health insurance programme, the National Health Protection Scheme. But
the focus should be on both the demand and supply side.
There should be adequate health-care finance and also the public health infrastructure should be available.,
Insurance schemes, such as the Centre’s
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Andhra Pradesh’s Rajiv Aarogyasri failed
to reach the most vulnerable sections. They
led to unnecessary medical procedures and increased out-of-pocket expenditure
for poor people,
Under the NHPS, four in ten Indians can avail
of secondary and tertiary care in government and private hospitals, within the
insurance cap earmarked per family. It has the objective of extending
healthcare insurance to 100 million families, and raises the insurance ceiling
to Rs.5 lakh per family. The scheme will target up to 500 million individuals
from financially vulnerable households. The NHPS will require an expenditure outlay
of over Rs.1 lakh crore ($1,000 billion).
A similar scheme from the 2016 Union budget,
which was meant to cover health expenses up to Rs.1 lakh per family, is yet to
be implemented. This Modicare shares its blueprint with the Affordable Care Act
that was championed by Barack Obama in the United States. It increases the
insurance cover per family by over 1500% from Rs. 30,000 under the extant RSBY,
to Rs.5 lakh.
Ancillary to the NHPS, the government plans to
set up 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres centres under the Ayushman Bharat
program. More Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals are planned to be
instituted. A World Health Organization (WHO) report titled The Health
Workforce in India states that on an average, there are 79.7 doctors per one
lakh people in the country. According
to data compiled by the World Bank, India’s health expenditure per capita
amounted to $267 in 2014, far below the world average of $1,271. The per capita spending on healthcare in
India is less than other developing countries like Indonesia, and African
countries like Djibouti and Gabon, where the average citizen spends $338 and
$599 respectively on healthcare.
Universal health coverage must be followed by
universal educational coverage. Also, a national nutrition mission is the need
of the hour.
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