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Healthcare is a cornerstone of a country’s economic progress, as it influences the well-being of its people and the productivity of its workforce. In India, every dollar spent on healthcare can generate returns of up to three dollars.
However, this calls for creating an efficient healthcare system, which is primarily driven by two critical elements: building a strong healthcare infrastructure; and ensuring access to reliable insurance.
Healthcare infrastructure includes the physical, organisational, and technological resources needed to deliver medical services, while insurance refers to funding the medical needs of individuals. India has made notable strides in healthcare. But it still faces challenges in providing high-quality, equitable healthcare to all citizens.
Higher allocation to public health spending is a key factor in improving healthcare infrastructure. India’s spend is alarmingly low, at about 2.2 per cent of GDP, compared to the global average of 6 per cent.
Augmenting capacity
To start with, focused investment is needed in three crucial areas: expanding hospital bed capacity; enhancing primary healthcare infrastructure; and improving clinical education to address the shortage of healthcare professionals. Currently, India has only 0.79 government hospital beds per 1,000 people, far below the global average of 2.7 beds.
To meet the National Health Policy 2017 recommendation of two beds per 1,000 people, India needs an additional 2.4 million beds. Increased healthcare spending would improve care and stimulate economic growth by creating jobs in the sector.
The country’s primary healthcare infrastructure also needs urgent attention. India has numerous public health centres, but many are under-resourced and lack essential equipment and trained personnel. Lastly, the shortage of healthcare professionals persists despite initiatives to increase medical seats. By expanding medical school capacity and enhancing education quality, India can produce a more skilled workforce to meet the growing healthcare needs.
Health cover for all
Then there’s the need for insurance for the “missing middle”. True universal healthcare entails making it affordable, especially for the “missing middle” — the 30 per cent of India’s population that lacks financial protection for healthcare. This group of roughly 400 million people falls between those covered by government schemes like Ayushman Bharat and those with private insurance.
To address this gap, the government must focus on providing affordable health insurance for this vulnerable section. This calls for collaborating with the private sector to design low-cost insurance products, coupled with tax incentives and subsidies.
Role of CSR
Other measures that can usher in improved health infrastructure and insurance access include setting up a dedicated healthcare account for corporate social responsibility (CSR), to pool unutilised CSR money at the year-end; ensuring small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large corporates contribute to health insurance programmes, similar to their contribution to provident fund accounts; and creating a separate allocation for health insurance within the health and education cess charged as part of direct tax.
These measures will go a long way in ensuring that India progresses on the back of a healthy and more productive population.
(The writer is Chief of Mission, NATHEALTH Foundation, and Partner, Quadria Capital. Views are personal)
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