What is the issue?
- NITI Aayog in a recent report spoke about the public-private partnership (PPP) model in healthcare.
- The PPP model will work alongside the public health system and will be chargeable.
Why does the government need the participation of private sector?
- India spends just than 1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) for health sector.
- Countries that have robust public health systems spend much more.
- Canada and the UK spend 8% of their GDP on healthcare.
- India has set itself an unambitious target of 2.5% of GDP for distant 2025.
- It is deducible that the low spending on health is a factor of governments and their employees being shielded from policies meant for the common people.
What are the evidences for private sector participation?
- Private healthcare in India usually offers quality service but is often expensive and largely unregulated.
- As per the Delhi government’s policy, the government would pay for surgeries of private citizens conducted at private hospitals.
- These surgeries would be ones that the government would not be able to conduct expeditiously at its own facilities.
- The Delhi government’s new scheme is a novelty for the common man but has a precedent in several government schemes for employees which use public funds to provide private healthcare.
- e.g the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) has existed for decades and has been emulated by several states.
- The states have floated similar schemes that discriminate between those who are employed by the state and those who are not.
Source: LiveMint
