India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

WILL THERE BE HEALTH FOR ALL? The global healthcare industry, worth $4.5 trillion- is the second largest industry today after the agro industry. The world’s third largest employer is the National Health Services of the UK, so one can imagine the potential for employment if the healthcare in India blossoms. Over the years, more than 90 % of the jobs in the healthcare sector have been ideally suited for women, especially from the lower socio- economic strata. The IT industry requires less than 10 people for a turnover of Rs.1crore, while the health care industry will require 200-250 people, typically from lower economic strata, ensuring all-round development. Nursing is the only profession in which a girl hailing from an earn more than Rs. 1lakh a month by the time she’s 24, by getting a job in a US or European hospital, where there is a dearth of qualified nurses. In fact, in the US, the only industry to have registered growth and added millions of jobs in the last five years. The policy-makers of India should look at healthcare as an industry that can propel economic growth rather than as a necessary evil. Millions of students graduate from our colleges every year, but our economy does not have jobs for all of them. One of the easiest solutions to the problem of unemployment is to start investing in the healthcare industry. Since nearly 60 per cent of our population lives in villages, the policies, projects, and schemes relating to the healthcare sector must try to impact this segment, so that it is delivered to the whole country. A major policy change that has to be implemented is the role of the government. The government should become a health insurance provider rather than just a healthcare provider. Today, only 17 per cent of the total cost of health care is borne by the government and patients have to privately finance the rest. Our government spends thousands of crores in building massive hospitals, but not much capital is invested in building a network for insurance. The most laudable recent effort in this direction is the Yeshasvini Health Insurance Scheme, which is functioning in association with the Karnataka State Cooperative Society, in which every villager has to contribute Rs 5 per month to cover his healthcare. The Yeshasvini micro health insurance scheme in Karnataka has ensured that 20 million farmers in the state [...]