The National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) aka Modicare announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this year’s Budget is a good initiative and a welcome move. Successful implementation of any such scheme is the hallmark of availability of adequate financial resources, infrastructure and skilled manpower besides business-friendly regulatory environment. Such scepticism may emanate from the lack of healthcare infrastructure in the country where doctor-to-patient ratio stands at 1:1674 against WHO guidelines of 1:1000. The scheme is expected to play the role of a catalyst in health care education, leveraging technology, development of entrepreneurship, growth of PPP model in health care and investment in the sector. Modicare is yet another systemic change the government proposes to invest heavily into, albeit, without adequate infrastructure and skilled manpower in place.

Source: dna February 11, 2018 02:37 UTC