Impact of Lack of Proper Healthcare Plans in India

Despite spending a substantial share of its GDP on the healthcare sector, and in spite of the rapid growth in private healthcare providers, health insurance continues to be an evasive commodity to a large part of the population. The topic of providing insurance for the all-important purpose of health maintenance and disease prevention hasn’t even been proposed in the conscience of the general public, let alone discussed on a political level.

This combination of minimal access to and inadequate protection provided by most healthcare plans has resulted in people having to bear heavy medical expenses out of their pockets, thus affecting the quality of life on a huge scale. Couple this with a serious dearth of awareness about the benefits of health insurance, and you will find that many people in India don’t consider healthcare plans a worthwhile investment.

However, one can hardly blame these individuals in that respect. Because on the few occasions that there is talk of health-related policies, it is primarily focused on family welfare or diseases like polio, tuberculosis, and HIV. And its worth mentioning that such vertical programs are influenced by the pressure on the central government to achieve their budgetary targets more than the need to improve the HAQ index (As of 2016, India ranked worse than Bangladesh, Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea at 145 with 41.2 points).

According to a former official of the planning commission, more attention is paid by political representatives to sectors like agriculture, trade, and infrastructure, letting healthcare fall too low on the list of priorities. Consequentially, the poorer masses receive primary and hospital care that is of an unacceptable quality, which, given the increasing burden of chronic diseases in the country, makes health insurance all the more essential. In comparison, the case in developed countries like Canada, U.K., and Australia is starkly different, because they accomplished universal healthcare a few decades ago.

In order for health insurance plans to become a household product in India, we have to demand changes on a structural level. Increasing knowledge on the subject as well as the accountability among providers and governance systems is the first step towards ensuring low-cost, high-quality, and unbiased healthcare for all. There’s also a pressing need to regulate healthcare spending and make sure the chronic diseases ailing the country’s youth and aged are not left unattended.

At a personal level, buying health insurance as a priority will provide more people with medical security and ultimately reduce financial anxiety, thus empowering the citizenry to hold their representatives accountable for the status of healthcare in the country.

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