Often you must have told people that I do not get treatment in government hospitals because there are no facilities and do not get treatment in private hospitals because big money is taken there. These problems can be solved in 2 ways-
(1) By increasing public health facilities.
(2) By providing health insurance cover to the people.
Big money is needed for the development of public health facilities and the fiscal condition of India is not such that the government can spend this amount on health facilities. Although developed countries like Britain are doing a good job in this matter. There, the National Health Scheme is operated with the money collected from the common tax system, which provides uniform health facilities to the people without checking their socio-economic status.
But the fiscal health in India is already deteriorating. So we have to look to another way. This is the way – public health insurance.
A scheme like Ayushman Bharat has been brought with this thinking in mind. Under this scheme, the members of Ayushman card holder families get an insurance cover of Rs.5 lakh. However, there are many flaws in the implementation of this plan as well. Like many private hospitals take advantage of the technical flaws of this scheme and recover money from the government by showing treatment to false patients, so many eligible beneficiaries and hospitals treating them do not get this amount. That is why often private hospitals refuse to treat Ayushman card holders.
Now what could be the third solution to this problem?
The third solution to this problem is the HOPS model. Under this system, the treatment is an alternative arrangement, that is, the patient is free to get treatment in government and private hospitals as per his wish. For this, the government has to strengthen its public health facilities, then instead of control over private hospitals, it has to be regulated.
Due to this, where rich patients can get treatment in government hospitals considering their amenities, the poor patients can ensure their right to proper health facilities in government hospitals. South Indian states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu have similar health facilities and all these states also rank well in different social indices.
The Government of India should also now implement its health programs according to the regional needs of different states. At present, the government spends only a small part of GDP in the health sector. Therefore, the government will have to take its own steps towards spending 3 percent of GDP in the health sector. We will see the investment made in the health sector in other sectors as well. Like a safe and healthy human resource will give us its advantage in the economy as well. Apart from this, it will also give impetus to the process of research and development in various fields.
