The government’s decision to significantly enhance its health spending two-and-a-half times is very likely to achieve health for all (universal health coverage) by as early as 2025. This would be a remarkable feat as only about a fifth (18%) of India’s population is currently covered either by the government or private health insurance schemes. Espousing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to provide health for all Indians, the government has decided to increase its spending on healthcare to 2.5% of the GDP up from 1% currently. “The move would scale-up the size of India’s healthcare industry to $280 billion by 2020 from the current estimated level of about $100 billion,” says Anupriya Patel, Minister of State, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. However, its implementation, both at the central as well as state level, is critical to achieve the desired objective.
India’s public health spend had been stagnant (at 1% of GDP) for over a decade now and therefore the decision to radically increase this is a “welcome move as there are certain health subjects (rural health, primary and preventive health centers etc.) which only the government can take care of”, says Nishant Berlia, Chair-Health Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry. In fact, the decision to increase public health spending was the need of the hour as about 6.3 crore Indians are pushed into the poverty trap every year due to health issues and related expenditures. Quoting The Lancet, a noted health journal, Berlia says that if India spends about 3% of its GDP on healthcare by 2020 while gradually increasing it to 4% by 2025, health for all would well be within the realm of reality.
Achieving such an ambitious target would not be free of challenges, of course. The first challenge is its implementation, especially at the state level, feel analysts. Since health is a state subject, the states need to join in enthusiastically by allocating and spending more on health issues. “I am eager to see the enhanced allocation both in the Union as well as in the states’ budget from the next year’s itself,” feels Berlia. Another obstacle to surmount is the significant skill gap. India faces huge shortages of healthcare professionals, starting from doctors, specialists, and also at all paramedical staff level (nurses). Healthcare professionals caution that the ageing population elsewhere in the globe is sucking a lot of Indian healthcare professionals into their country, a phenomenon which would only increase in times to come. So the government’s thrust on capacity building (medical education) needs to scale-up fast.