Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Why does health insurance in India come under the finance ministry ?

Healthcare is regulated and controlled by the healthcare ministry in India. Healthcare insurance is an enabling tool which makes healthcare more affordable , so that when patients fall ill , they can get assistance in paying their bills , and do not need to worry about how they will be able to do so. Insurance is a risk management tool, which helps to blunt the financial hit patients take when seeking medical care. Thus, while it is true that health insurance is a financial tool, it is also equally true that it is an enabling tool , the purpose of which is to allow people to get the healthcare they need. If that's the case , the isn't it perfectly logical that healthcare insurance regulations should be framed and implemented by the healthcare ministry , rather than the finance ministry?

There's a lot of unhappiness and angst as regards health insurance in India today , and part of the problem is that a lot of the rules and regulations are being set by the finance department , which doesn't have enough healthcare expertise in order to understand the pain points with patient and healthcare providers encounter .

The worldview of someone working in the finance industry is completely different from someone who works in the healthcare industry ; and it is this difference in perspective which is one of the contributing factors to why we not been able to solve some of the sticky healthcare insurance issues in this country today.

Ensuring that Indian citizens remain healthy and productive is extremely important towards ensuring that we take advantage of the fortunate demographic dividend we find ourselves in. Healthcare insurance is an extremely powerful tool to ensure this ; and allowing people with expertise in healthcare to formulate the rules which govern healthcare insurance would go a long way towards achieving this laudable goal. Let’s not squander this opportunity !

3 comments:

  1. Great post about health insurance. This is really informative. Thanks for sharing this to us.

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  2. Anonymous6:27 PM

    I was a good post, I had never thought in that direction before. However I feel that health insurance also requires financial expertise, a solution to this could be a teamwork between the health care industry and finance industry so that both of them with their experience in their own field can make health insurance a better product for Indian consumers.

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  3. good post. I am surely that many bloggers will appreciate your nice and informative post.

    ReplyDelete