If administered properly, healthcare insurance sector has a huge potential in India and it can be leveraged to realize the dream to provide ‘health for all’. I wonder if the government can create a corpus to fund the insurance premium to be paid on behalf of the lower income groups and those below poverty line. The state governments have to do this and each state government can initiate a fund with a nominal contribution of some Rs. 50 crores and invite the industrial units and big traders in the State to add to it generously against assured tax deduction. I am sure many big industrial houses running their own social schemes as part of corporate social responsibility are doing so only because they perceive the state-sponsored schemes as the biggest sieves on the earth. A public-private partnership trust can administer the corpus and the lure of premium paying public will in its wake spawn private hospitals in every nook and corner. It is certainly not a rosy picture that I am trying to paint against ground reality. Mark my words, healthcare insurance is going to be the next big revolution in India after Sam Pitroda’s telecom revolution in the eighties and the nineties.

Health Insurance is a huge opportunity to raise resources for creating healthcare infrastructure. There is no denying that IRDA comes up with some directives sporadically, especially for the senior citizens. But there has to be urgent, concerted action in this direction. There is a time for everything. With the economy growing at close to 9% with hopes of it reaching the magical double digit in a few years, now is the time to act positively. Maybe, the Planning Commission can goad IRDA to move quickly.