The Himachal Pradesh government is planning to set up a healthcare model which will run like a trust, fully funded by the money that patients would otherwise pay as out of pocket (OOP) expenses — money spent on purchase of medical care that is not reimbursed.
Run as a trust, the State’s health department aims to deliver healthcare services without any payment at point of care. “Our logic is that people have to spend that money anyway on OOP expenditures on drugs, consultation fess etc. If we can persuade the paying community to pay even half of the annual amount spent as OOP, we can pool that money and be able to universalise healthcare,” said Vineet Chaudhary, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, HP.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Indians spend a whopping 85.9 per cent on purchasing healthcare, considered as among the highest in the world. The HP government maintains that a patient in the State spends approximately Rs. 2,600/per capita as OOP expenses. In the proposed scheme, beneficiaries will pre-pay the same amount spent annually as OOP for free access to care through the year. Further, people who are not the below poverty line (BPL) may contribute a nominal amount for healthcare services.
The scheme has already got the approval of the Chief Minister’s Office and will now be presented to the Council of Ministers for approval. “This is a politically sensitive issue. We need to first take it to cabinet for approval before piloting the project,” Mr. Chaudhary added.
The far-reaching scheme is based on recommendations from the HP Health Commission, which is chaired by M.K. Bhan, recently retired as secretary of the Department of Biotechnology and co-chaired by Vinod Paul, Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatrics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The series of measures taken by the HP state government come in the backdrop of severe budget slashes in the health sector. The Union government currently spends around 1.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health- as against China’s 3 per cent and United States’ 8.3 per cent. With the Centre’s spending not increasing, the State governments must innovate, added Dr. Paul.
