Role of insurance in creating sustainable health financing system

KB Srinivas, GM, National Insurance Corporation, gave a brief introduction to the company and spoke about its inception and growth. He reiterated the words of Dalai Lama who once said, ‘Man sacrifices his health to make money. Then his sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; result being that he does not live in the present or the future. He lives as if he is going to die and then dies having never really lived.’

Srinivas opined, “The Indian healthcare sector is only focussing on ailment care which is just smaller portion of the term healthcare. We should be focussing more on health and wellness rather than treating ailments.” He applauded the Express Healthcare team to begin the day with a Yoga session. He said that promoting healthy lifestyle with the help of Yoga and other holistic approaches to health and wellness should be the way of life. He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts to promote Yoga.

Additionally, Srinivas gave a comparison of the health indicators between India and rest of the world as well as gave an overview of healthcare industry and the state of affairs within the sector.

He also elaborated on myriad ways to finance healthcare and cited interested financing models in his session. Citing example from the Tamil Nadu model of financing for healthcare, he informed that the scheme has a system wherein a portion of healthcare insurance claim money is given to government hospitals in order to upgrade their infrastructure and other facilities. This strategy has been successful and has helped many district hospitals within the state.

Similarly, he put forward some interesting case studies from Germany, Italy, Cuba, Great Britain, Japan, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan and many more who have adopted different models for healthcare financing. He also explained the implications of models such as Bismarck, Beveridge and out-of-pocket model and compared it with the National Health Insurance model followed by India. Lastly, Srinivas explained the growth opportunities and insurance trends in healthcare in the coming years.