India is making progressive steps towards achieving Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) by 2022. However, the need of the hour is increased public funding, regulation cost and improving efficiency in service, stated Dr Usha Manjunath, Director, Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), Bengaluru.
Now the universal coverage of population with financial protection, and access to a comprehensive service package are measures which have the potential to reduce catastrophic health expenditure, stated Dr. Manjunath quoting a paper on Indian Institute of Public Health.
UHC is mostly associated with developed countries. But three countries that made excellent progress towards UHC are China, South Korea and Thailand. Now India is taking steps forward. But Karnataka has already accomplished the status of being first state to provide UHC covering over 60 million people through its Arogya Bhagya scheme. The scheme seeks to merge the existing healthcare schemes under an umbrella to offer cashless treatment for up to Rs 1.5 lakh at government and private hospitals. Meanwhile, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and others are also planning similar initiatives, she said.
Under UHC, all 14 million households in Karnataka will be eligible for cashless treatments. Priority and deprived households including the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) card holders, farmers, unorganised sector workers, members of cooperative societies, government employees, and elected representatives comprising 10.5 million households do not have to make any contribution. They will be classified under Category A. The rest can enrol online by paying an annual premium of Rs.300 per person if in rural areas and Rs.700 if in urban areas. This population will be classified under Category B.
Karnataka government stated that funds of over Rs.1,022 crore, allocated for various health schemes, will be pooled under UHC. Based on disease incidence, the state estimated that implementing the UHC will cost around Rs.869 crore annually, she said.
Going forward, the development of an appropriate health benefit package however is no trivial task. It involves the alignment of political, technical, social, practical and economic components of health system delivery in order to provide a sustainable model leading up to Universal Health Coverage. Karnataka has the advantage of leveraging the national initiative that taps academic capacity across the nation to conduct economic evaluation based on the context of social and political value. The government can align this initiative to carry out technical analysis that would scrutinize the process of developing the Arogya Bhagya benefits package, said Dr. Manjunath.