Get cracking: on implementing ‘Modicare’ 

Context

Implementation roadmap for the new National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) launched in the budget

Challenges before us

These included transfer of resources to provinces, recruitment of health personnel, and purchase and distribution of medicines to the chosen units

For-profit tertiary care sector

Moreover, the steady growth of a for-profit tertiary care sector poses the additional challenge of arriving at a basic care package for those who are covered by the NHPS, at appropriate costs.

State-funded insurance schemes

• A national health system will also have to subsume all existing state-funded insurance schemes.
• This will give beneficiaries access not just within a particular State but across the country to empanelled hospitals.

Steps to address these challenges

• Strict regulation

The efficiency of a large-scale health system depends on strict regulation.

• Determination of treatment costs

Determination of treatment costs by the government is therefore important.