NEW DELHI // India’s universal health plan that aims to offer guaranteed benefits to every citizen will cost an estimated US$26 billion (Dh95.5bn) over the next four years.
Under the national health assurance mission, prime minister Narendra Modi’s government would provide all its citizens – which make up a sixth of the world’s population – with free drugs, diagnostic treatment and insurance cover to treat serious ailments.
The proposed plan would be launched in phases from April 2015 and will cover the entire population by March 2019, said CK Mishra, an additional secretary at the health ministry. When the entire population is covered, it would cost an estimated $11.4 billion annually.
“If you want to deliver the service, that is what it will take,” Mr Mishra said, disclosing for the first time an expert group’s cost estimates that will be considered by the finance ministry for inclusion in the government’s spending plans.
Healthcare experts caution that it could take decades before India’s 1.2 billion people are adequately covered and that the costs of provision could face significant upward pressure.
If approved, India would need to drastically raise its healthcare spending.
The federal budget allocated about $5 billion to healthcare in the current financial year.
“We are not in a position to implement it across the regions, states [right now]. It’s impossible. So we are choosing number of districts each year,” said Mr Mishra.
Despite rapid economic growth in the last 20 years, India spends only about 1 per cent of GDP on healthcare. That compares to 3 per cent in China and 8.3 per cent in the United States.
* Reuters
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