Public private partnership models will be key to all future public health programmes in India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission has said.
Inaugurating a national workshop on healthcare organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) here today, Alhuwalia said that the government's priority is to provide basic health infrastructure in rural areas. "A very large expansion of public health system is needed. But that does not mean health infrastructure should be created in the public system. It is perfectly possible for government to pay for health by subsidising the expense through insurance schemes", he explained.
The government's public health spend will not be singularly focused on creating health infrastructure in the public sector, but instead will go towards health insurance schemes that allows maximum utilisation of existing public and private healthcare facilities, he said.
Highlighting the significance of Rashtriya Swasthaya Bima Yojna ( a Central Government health insurance scheme for below poverty line families in unorganised sector) launched on October 1, 2007, Ahluwalia said the scheme will provide health insurance to roughly 300 million people within three to four years. "Once completely rolled out, this will be the largest single public health system in the world", he said.
Private healthcare establishments are to benefit out of the scheme as they are also encouraged to be part of the scheme by agreeing to provide cash-less service to BPL patients, he said.
Ahluwalia felt that the scheme also offers financial incentives to public sector hospitals as they will also be eligible for reimbursement once they can attract patients by providing the same quality of service.