Public and private sectors need to join hands to deliver innovative healthcare solution to the common man as the government has limited fiscal space, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said today.
"Fiscal space is limited and that is where they we need to be innovative... What we need to collectively do is to come up with a innovative framework that enables to do what can be done with limited resources," he said at the India Health Summit organised by CII.
He said the public spending on health in India is 6 per cent of GDP, which is close to the World Health Organisation's 7 per cent mark.
"As far as the public health is concerned we need to do much much more... The challenge is government spending which is 1 per cent of GDP, well below our peer group. We need to fix that," he said, adding that both public and private sector should work together to ensure that 6 per cent is spent effectively and efficiently.
Sinha said the amount of money that is available in terms of fiscal space for social sector, healthcare, education, training -- these soft asset expenditure that are vital are far below where they need to be.
During interaction with Sinha, industry demanded special status for healthcare sector in the Budget 2016-17 and also sought dialogue with the government of various issues.
Sinha said: "You know that our fiscal space is limited, you know our state capacity is also limited because of vacancies and ability to do innovative things. So come to us with practical solutions, tell us what we can do, we are very open, we recognise our limitations, and we want to work in a collaborative fashion to solve this difficult problems".
He said the healthcare system in India needs to have some basic 'Medicare' so that if a person is below certain income level he would be covered by it, as happens in most countries.
Speaking at the Summit, Fortis Healthcare Executive Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh suggested that government should take a policy decision that all secondary, tertiary care hospitals in the country will be made available to the private sector by PPP.
"That will save you money," he said, adding that government's role should be to provide primary healthcare and insurance and private sector can take on from there.
