A bold step towards healthy future | Dr A Velumani

First and foremost the announcement of AB is a bold statement by this government and the size of the scheme itself is intimidating.

Highlighting a few things good about the AB – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, the largest government sponsored health assurance scheme, brings in a huge size of money from the government for the healthcare industry. It would be largely consumed by second half of the pyramid. If not all, majority of costs are HR costs and this will open up a lot of job opportunities to paramedical staff.

So far the beds of hospitals that served, heavily occupied by the rich would be equally distributed to even those less occupied hospitals in small towns. Huge volumes of work in the diagnostic and therapeutic – will get accumulated and those volumes will improve efficiencies and optimise costs.

Usually the worry for the hospitals was on — From where will I get business! but now the worry will be how will make profits out of this volumes. After the roll-out of AB, the consumer need not pay, he will invest time so that the diseases and disorders can be identified earlier, which can improve the quality of life.

Overall countrymen could be healthier if it is implemented without hassles of delivery.

Few of the challenges which can be foreseen are the costings in hospitals — For procedures, these are going to be challenged and new rate lists will be put forth that would be volume corrected. For example every hospital will have to learn from Arvind Eye Hospital on how volumes decide the quality and not cost alone. According to me, as of now, the costs declared by government needs tweaking for some sensitive and cumbersome procedures.

Another important concern is, we do not have enough beds nor doctors to cater to 50 crore target people who are said to be covered under AB, if they start consuming the insurance seriously. Common man will also have too high expectations in terms of standards that can put cost constrained hospitals into stress.

With all said, claimed and argued, this ambitious AB project will have a huge impact on government budgets, infrastructure limitations, implementation controls, fraud control mechanisms and above all the health of the countrymen in long run.

More hospital visits will result in more tests, consumption of more medicines and performing more clinical procedures will result in a society with improved quality of living.

Many historical journeys begin with some idea about how the path would be. But path is known only when one is on a journey and all what it needs is courage not to give up and stamina to keep walking.

Acche Din Aanewala hai – for Healthcare.

Next article: Together, Let’s Make India Healthy | Dr Bhupendra Kumar Rana