India is undergoing a revolution in the health sector and will become the first country in the world to disassociate healthcare from affluence, according to Devi Prasad Shetty, founder and chairman, Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals and chairman, Healthex International 2012.

Seven to ten years from now, there will be an interesting scenario in India where millions of people living in slums with no amenities will have access to high tech healthcare with dignity, he pointed out.

India will prove to the world that a country does not need to be affluent to offer affordable healthcare to its citizens. For this transformation to take place, there is a need for us to create over two to three million beds in hospitals around the country. Along with each bed, the equipment required and the industry size needs to be determined, he said.

The reason for my optimism regarding this massive transformation in India in the near future is because the Indian Government is in talks to conceptualize a law called ‘Right to Healthcare’. In my opinion, 'Right to Healthcare' will soon become a reality just as the Right to Information or the Right to Education. Political parties, political leaders and citizens of the country support this initiative and I believe that there will not be any opposition for them when this campaign begins.

The question that would arise is whether we have that kind of money to pay for healthcare for everyone in the country. Interestingly, healthcare need not be as expensive as it is today as this is one industry that is not dependent on any natural resource like steel, petrol or cement. We do not need any of those. All we need is human skill.

We produce the highest number of doctors, nurses and medical technicians in the world. We also have the largest number of US FDA approved drug manufacturing units outside the US. In fact, we have the capacity to make medicines for the whole world. In spite of these positives, we are still in a mess as people do not have available cash to pay for healthcare. Right to Healthcare will insure that the government comes up with various schemes to suit the working class and underprivileged.

A simple example of how this will happen is that of what Karnataka did 10 years ago with the insurance called Yashaswini. 1.7 million farmers initially paid Rs. 5 per month and the Government paid Rs. 2.5, today the premium has increased to Rs. 10 and we are close to three million people contributing money. People in Karnataka have many schemes available to them like Yashaswini, Vajpayee Arogya, Suvarna Arogya Yojana, etc.

But in North India, such schemes do not exist. For instance, if the police force is unwell they could access any of the 400 network hospitals and get any treatment free of cost. The Arogya Bhagya scheme of Police will provide cashless service. Even though North India has the same amount of police force, such schemes are not available to them making healthcare a financial burden. They are entitled for reimbursement but unfortunately it is very hard for them to get the reimbursement money from the Government. The whole purpose to create this system of Right to Healthcare’, is to encourage the Government to come up with schemes which will allow underprivileged people to participate in the delivery of healthcare.