Insurance scheme to boost govt infra: Narayana Hrudalaya

The 2016 Union Budget schemes for the healthcare are extremely positive as the common man now will be able to afford major surgeries under the new insurance scheme, says Devi Shetty, Chairman of Narayana Hrudalaya. The government in the Budget introduced a new health insurance scheme with a Rs 1 lakh cover per family and an additional Rs 30,000 for senior citizens. Another positive is recognizing the conditional of dialysis treatment in the country. “While the import duty on (dialysis) equipments may not have an overall impact on cost, it shows the positive sentiment,” he says. The move to provide low cost generic medicines will not only help people, but boost government infrastructure as well, Shetty says. Below is the transcript of Devi Shetty’s interview with Ekta Batra and Anuj Singhal on CNBC-TV18.Ekta: First, wanted to start by talking about all of the healthcare promotion schemes that came out from the Budget. For example, insurance of up to around Rs 1 lakh per family and an additional Rs 30,000 for senior citizens which will be a top-up. Your sense in terms of whether you would see volumes increase within hospitals especially yours considering that you have a focus on affordable healthcare?A: First of all, it is a very positive Budget for the healthcare industry. Predominantly, because nearly 25 percent of the country’s population who could not dream of getting a major surgery done earlier, today can afford to have a major surgery done or major intervention done because they have covered up to Rs 1 lakh. Very unlikely that all the members fall sick at the same time. So, it is like a floater scheme covering the whole family. So, if one family member requires surgical intervention, most of operation can be done today with Rs 1 lakh. And the other positive aspect of the Budget is that they have recognised senior citizens. Earlier, no schemes were covering people past the age of 60. There were virtually like untouchables. So, today, specifically, the government has opened its doors for the senior citizens by giving extra Rs 30,000 for people past the age of 60. So, this will encourage a lot of hospitals to come up in areas where today, there are no hospitals, namely backward parts of the country where people had no money to pay for the intervention.So, this will be a very positive. This will have an impact on the viability of the hospitals. And our hospital cannot be an exception. The other positive aspect is the government’s policy on dialysis because plight of dialysis patients in this country is pathetic. Today, they have shown genuine intention in removing the import duty which may not have a big impact on the overall cost of dialysis, but it sends a very positive sentiment and also encourages state governments to start dialysis centres in all the district hospitals. Today, the dialysis is a state capital affair. So, it will get shifted to district headquarters hospital. Eventually, it should go to the taluka hospital. But then, obviously we have to train more medical man power which I guess will happen in the future. So, overall there is a positive sentiment on the healthcare because of the inclusion of the below poverty line card holders with the health insurance scheme.More to follow..