Speaking at Dakshin Healthcare Summit, Dr CN Manjunath cited Ayushman Bharat as an example of successful government-funded health scheme.
Published Aug 11, 2024 | 4:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 12, 2024 | 2:56 PM
Dr CN Manjunath (right) and Dr Nageshwar Reddy at the Dakshin Healthcare Summit.
Disagreeing with Narayana Health Founder-Chairman Dr Devi Prasad Shetty’s scepticism over the viability of government-funded healthcare in largely populated countries, Lok Sabha MP Dr CN Manjunath cited the success of Ayushman Bharat.
“Ayushman Bharat is one of the biggest public health schemes operating in the country,” Dr Manjunath, former director of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research from Karnataka, said.
The Bengaluru Rural MP, however, acknowledged that the initial package rates under Ayushman Bharat were insufficient.
“In 2022, there was a revision called HBP (Health Benefit Package) 2022. I think it is quite decent but unfortunately, many states have not adopted these revised rates,” the renowned cardiologist pointed out.
Manjunath was speaking at the inaugural edition of the Dakshin Health Summit, co-hosted by South First and TV9 Network.
The lawmaker further explained HBP 2022. “The earlier package for bypass surgery was ₹95,000. The revised rate is almost ₹130,000. It’s quite better. For congenital heart disease complex surgery, the revised rate is somewhere around ₹2.2 lakh. Earlier, it used to be ₹1 lakh,” he said.
Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is the central government’s public health insurance scheme that aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low-income groups.
In an interview with The Economic Times, Dr Shetty said government-funded public healthcare would run well in countries with small populations. “The moment the population exceeds 15 million, it tends to break down,” he said.
Dr Manjunath emphasised the need for expanding quality healthcare facilities to tier-two cities to reduce patient travel time.
“We should start establishing quality specialty hospitals in tier-two cities, maybe even to some extent in mid-sized cities, because the travel time or travel radius should not be more than 50 km. This is because most of the top-class five-star hospitals are getting concentrated in tier-one cities,” he argued.
Advocating a “hub-and-spoke model” for emergencies like heart attacks and strokes, Dr Manjunath said each 30-minute delay in initiating treatment would increase the risk of death by seven percent.
“So, if they have to travel hundreds of kilometers, the precious time—the golden hour—is lost. So, this hub-and-spoke model means the peripheral hospital will give initial medical treatment — the one-minute injection of TPA (tissue plasminogen activator) clot-buster,” he added.
Gastroenterologist and chairman of AIG Hospitals Dr Nageshwar Reddy concurred with Dr Manjunath on government-funded healthcare in India. ‘
He opined that “70 percent of healthcare should be the government’s responsibility in a low-income country with a large population. Only 30 or 20 percent of urban, high-end healthcare should be privatised”.
However, Dr Reddy identified a critical issue with the current system: The allocation of funds. “Unfortunately, look at the budget—only 2 percent of the budget expenditure is devoted to healthcare. I’m not blaming the government because there are so many other schemes that need funding,” he said.
“We, as professionals, should fight for more allocation and, of course, research. If it goes up to 5 percent, we would be better off,” he opined.
Dr Reddy also touched upon the importance of promoting insurance to prevent middle-class families from facing financial ruin due to medical expenses.
He refuted the idea that private medical insurance hindered access to healthcare. “I think it’s a wrong notion. The US has failed not because of insurance. It failed because its healthcare was pushed to a very high level of tertiary care, which the society cannot afford,” he said while contrasting it with successful social insurance-based models in European countries such as Germany and Belgium.
“The kind of insurance premiums we have in this country is extremely good for the patients. We should promote insurance as it is now so that more and more middle-class and upper-middle-class people will have access to insurance,” Dr Reddy added.
(Edited by Majnu Babu)
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