Government is planning to step up its expenditure on public healthcare to 2 to 3 per cent of the GDP with some serious policy initiatives, according to Planning Commission vice-chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
He was addressing the 4th annual CII Health Insurance Summit here on Thursday. Montek Singh has requested CII to advice on channelising public schemes like CGHS & ECHS through Insurance. He felt that there could be expansion of Group Health Insurance by allowing tax deductions in wage expenses to only those corporate providing health insurance to their employees. CII has also been asked to share international experiences from the countries who have adapted such a system to promote Health Insurance.
Chairman IRDA J Hari Narayan assured that the issues of the stakeholders will be resolved and felt regulatory concerns for Health Insurers who have been in financial stress past few years. He acknowledged that the private health insurers are financially solvent and that a proper reporting system to improve underwriting practice is urgently needed. He highlighted that in India the penetration of Health Insurance is low and the government should seriously consider increasing their spending on healthcare.
A Vaidheesh, the summit chairman shared the recommendations of the CII Working groups on Health Insurance and mentioned that there has been an adverse ratio in India due to sick people taking health insurance largely. Amongst the invited dignitaries Dr Prathap C Reddy , Dr Naresh Trehan, Mr Analjit Singh & Bhargav Dasgupta shared their views on health insurance.
Currently about 200 million people in India have health or medical benefits under schemes for government employees, railways, armed forces personnel and through ESIS, RSBY and Arogyashree as well as private health insurance. The total may well double to 400 million by 2015, making India potentially the largest health insurance market worldwide by number of lives insured. The industry feels that the time is right for the government to define the role of health insurance in a unified national health policy. As the industry matures, it realizes that systematic capacity building and policy formulation are the imperative issues to be addressed.
The 4th CII Health Insurance summit has released a report developed by the CII Working Groups on Health Insurance. This report disseminates best practices and outlines mechanisms to increase innovations in products and client services including innovations that can help hospitals and insurers deliver better choices and services to the consumers. It also provides the outline of a comprehensive communication and awareness exercise which the industry is planning on undertaking. Such initiatives will help all the stakeholders to prepare for significant growth and will ensure that the growth is sustainable and inclusive.
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