Modi’s Quest for Universal Healthcare. Can It Work?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sept. 23 formally launched a healthcare insurance scheme that is expected to cover some 500 million of the poorest people in the country.
The healthcare scheme aims to provide each family with up to 500,000 rupees ($6,920) of coverage annually.
“No other nation has such a scheme,” Modi said in the Jharkhand capital Ranchi, where he launched the scheme. “It will become an example that people will study all over the world.”
The program forms part of the Ayushman Bharat, a government project to expand health services across India. The healthcare scheme — launched as part of the project — has been dubbed “Modicare” after the prime minister.
Split between the central government and state authorities, the scheme is expected to cost approximately $1.6 billion annually. It is expected to run in a “cashless and paperless” way.
But wait….
Some are critical of Modicare, warning that it should have also included primary healthcare for day-to-day health issues.
“Modicare does not extend to primary healthcare, which, we believe, is the weakest link in the provision of public health in India,” wrote Rajiv Lall and Vivek Dehejia of India’s Infrastructure Development Finance Company in a column for Mint.
“The crucial point is that poorly delivered primary care inevitably increases the burden on health and finance at the secondary and tertiary levels down the line.”
Experts say India’s public heath system is overburdened by a shortage of health workers and facilities.
Indian citizens with financial means have resorted to private health practices and clinics, where a consultation can cost 1,000 rupees. However, those options are out of reach for the millions of people who live on less than $2 a day.
Here are some other issues.
Capacity
The biggest challenge to the government’s ambitious plan to provide healthcare to 10 crore families will be the availability of hospital beds in tier-II and tier-III cities and in rural areas, said Indu Bhushan, chief executive officer of Ayushman Bharat.
Bhushan admitted that a full roll-out — that will bring in approximately 50 crore Indians — in 40 days will be challenging. We have, from the hospitals that have come onboard, 60,000 beds, he said. He estimated that at least 2 lakh beds will be required if the scheme is to run at full capacity.
Pricing of health packages has been another pain-point, with the Indian Medical Association questioning the viability of providing healthcare at the proposed low costs. Bhushan said that this has been a “bone of contention” but assured that treatment rates under the scheme are “the median” and that states have the flexibility to change them.
“Unviable”
B. Calling the pricing unviable, private hospitals have threatened to stay away from the Prime Minister’s health insurance scheme that will cover more than half-a-billion Indians.
The Indian Medical Association, a doctors’ lobby that agreed to bring small and medium hospitals on board, said the rates of medical procedures under the scheme were “unscientific, non-viable and will compromise on patient safety”, according to a June 22 letter to NITI Aayog. The prices calculated by the association were up to 84 percent higher than what the government fixed.
Transparency
And then there is the small matter of the National Health Agency not finding 65 lakh of the 10.74 crore households that will be covered for Rs 5 lakh a year, Indu Bhushan, chief executive officer of the implementing authority, said in an emailed statement to BloombergQuint. The beneficiaries were selected based on the seven-year-old socio-economic caste census.
Ketto & Healthcare
Since its inception, Ketto has been a strong advocate of disease prevention programs, affordable healthcare, and strong health education in India. Click on the links below to view crowdfunding projects it has been involved with for disease treatment and medical management efforts. If you feel inspired, you can perhaps start your own project with Ketto as well.
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