NATHEALTH unveils white paper on Indian healthcare roadmap

It was launched in collaboration with Bain & Company at New Delhi

NATHEALTH released a white paper ‘AAROGYA BHARAT 2025’ in collaboration with Bain & Company at its second annual event held in New Delhi. Navreet Singh Kang, Additional Secretary and Dr Prathap C Reddy, DG, CGHS Department and Shivinder Mohan Singh, President, and Anjan Bose, Secretary General, NATHEALTH unveiled the white paper.

NATHEALTH also introduced an ‘Ethics Pledge’, a declaration by the industry leaders across diverse healthcare segments in partnership with IMA, to build a robust and transparent platform to promote ethical practices in the healthcare ecosystem.

Shivinder Singh said, “This white paper is an effort by NATHEALTH with collaboration of Bain & Company to drive thought leadership as we move towards a healthier, ‘Aarogya’ India over the next decade. Total spending on healthcare is anticipated to reach about six per cent of GDP by 2025. Private insurance is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of about 25 per cent to cover the top 25 per cent of the population, by income level. Public insurance will provide essential care to 60 per cent of the population by 2025.

According to the paper, 70 per cent of India’s population has no health insurance and is short by two million beds compared with the global benchmark. India requires three trillion dollars in cumulative funding and has the potential to generate 15 to 20 million jobs by 2025.

Bose said, “India can adopt universal access to essential healthcare driven by private sector-led provision with the government playing the role of primary payer and provider in remote and underserved areas.”

The white paper recommends the expansion of the supply of healthcare talent in critical roles, rejuvenation of, Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoepathy (AYUSH) and encouragement of private investment in education.

NATHEALTH’s ask from the government is to increase public spending on healthcare to 2.5 per cent – 3 per cent of GDP, apportion a greater share of public spending to prevention, including mass screenings and primary care coverage by 2025. Additionally, the government should focus on being a payer, not a provider and demand and support quality outcomes.

Bose said, “To facilitate ‘Make in India’ innovations, the government can look to further incentivise domestic innovation and manufacturing. This will also have a ripple effect in terms of increased FDI and will generate employment.

A key recommendation of the white paper is an appeal to the government to increase tax exemption on premiums of health insurance and incentivise private sector participation in medical education.

Karan Singh, Partner, Bain & Company informed that Capex spending will grow from current levels of less than 10 per cent to 15 per cent of overall healthcare spending. Expanding infrastructure will lead to 1.7 million additional functional beds thus improving the density of beds from 0.9 per thousand today to 2.0 per thousand in 2025.

Shivinder Singh further said, “Despite evolution on multiple fronts, India still struggles with substantial issues and gaps in its healthcare system. At 1.3 per cent of GDP, public spending on healthcare in India is amongst the lowest across developing countries and affects the poor and inaccessible rural areas the most.”

In order to develop a holistic and sustainable healthcare system, our immediate priority is to ensure that the government assigns national priority to the healthcare agenda, commits to spending more on public health and define a framework for India’s health system. Additionally, the government should enable a paradigm shift to healthy living via greater public spending on prevention, Shivinder Singh added.

While addressing the member participants Dr Reddy said, “The sole responsibility does not lie with the Government. The private players in the healthcare industry have a significant role to play to bridge the demand-supply gap and to build a healthier India. Members of NATHEALTH, with the right incentives, should aspire to invest in expanding the supply of affordable care, especially in rural areas and in tier II and tier III cities.

Further Bose, said, “The government could focus on the role of a payer while investing in public health and leading the provision of care in underserved areas. Additionally, it should drive policy consensus among the centre and the states to ensure that appropriate priority is given to delivering high quality healthcare.”