The Central government is exploring setting up a health sector regulator that will bring private and government health insurance schemes under its purview to facilitate affordable insurance coverage for all, The Hindu has learnt.
The Ministries of Finance (MoF) and Health are in “initial discussions” over the need for a sector watchdog.
The Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), in a letter to the MoF, welcomed this saying “making healthcare available, accessible, and affordable has been resolved by the present government. Penetration of private insurance is increasing at a fast rate and along with government-run insurance, India should soon be covering 70% of the population”.
Doctors’ bodies have urged that private and government insurance be brought under a single regulator. Meaning, regulating government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the Central Government Health Scheme, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, etc.
Dr. Girdhar Gyani, DG, AHPI said, “This can only happen, if government insurance schemes are restructured in a manner that more and more tertiary care hospitals come forward and get empanelled in these schemes to enable beneficiaries to get healthcare services”.
‘Insurance for All by 2047’
Under the IRDAI Vision 2047, the government aims to provide ‘Insurance for All by 2047’, which means that every citizen has appropriate life, health, and property insurance coverage and every enterprise is supported by appropriate insurance solutions.
“We have been requesting to have an independent agency that can restructure these schemes including fixing reimbursement rates for various medical procedures on a scientific basis. Without this, most hospitals are not coming forward to empanel under these schemes, depriving extending tertiary care to beneficiaries. We request that the proposed regulator also cover government health insurance schemes,” Dr. Gyani added.
