Hospitals must provide health insurance, says Dr Devi Shetty

This will change the rules of the game and if that is possible then there is no conflict of interest. No wrong advice is given to patients, Dr Shetty, the doyen of affordable healthcare in India, said while talking virtually to a group of healthcare professionals assembled physically at a Round Table Meeting on "Vision 2030--Quality and Affordable Health for All in Telangana state", organised by FTCCI (Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry) here on Monday evening. 

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About 93 per cent of the Indian workforce is in the unorganised sector, he said and suggested that they must cultivate a culture of Health Savings Accounts and start depositing Rs 100 a month.

Health Saving Account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged account created for or by individuals. It helps individuals save on medical expenses, Dr Shetty said.

An HSA owned by an employee can be funded by both the employee and employer. There are so many states in India that are doing this. Telangana can also take a lead on this, he said.

According to a survey, India needs 65 million surgeries every year but today, we are doing 26 million surgeries. What is happening to the balance of 39 million? the Narayana Hrudayalaya Chairman asked.

They are either gradually suffering or have died from lack of access to the surgery, he said 70 to 80 per cent of these surgeries are simple ones. Even they are not accessible. That is not because of a lack of facilities or doctors, but because patients are unable to pay.

Dr Shetty said his group of hospitals, the Narayana Hrudayalaya, do 14 per cent of heart surgeries in India each year. If a poor patient is advised of a heart surgery that costs Rs 3 lakh, the only thing they can do is cry. They may at the most manage Rs one lakh. But that doesn't solve the problem.

Stating that the government should be blamed for this as it cannot do that. People like us have to do this, which means the people who pay taxes to the government are indirectly able to do so.

Unfortunately, we are a large country with a tax-to-GDP ratio of 11 per cent and spend 3.16 per cent of our GDP on Healthcare.

The government's contribution is 1.28 per cent and if this is the situation, we cannot expect the government to increase the budget allocation to healthcare. So what is the alternative? The only alternative is Health Insurance, he said.

The three key stakeholders in Health Insurance are hospitals, insurance companies and patients. Unfortunately, they don't trust any. In such a situation, the scalability will not work. Patients today have to pay for the profitability of hospitals and insurance companies, Dr Shetty added.

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