Even as two states – West Bengal and Karnataka – announced their decision to opt out of the National Health Protection Scheme this week, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs, Ananth Kumar said that the scheme, 'Ayushman Bharat', has the potential to “turn India into the largest pharma manufacturer of the world in about three years.”
The minister said that Ayushman Bharat “will lay down an ambitious framework for Universal Health Coverage by giving assured affordable and quality health cover of Rs 5 lakh per year to about 50 crore poor people in India.” Kumar said the government will start rolling out 'Namo-Care' in the next three months with the "same speed and efficiency of highly successful initiatives like Mudra Yojana [loan scheme], Ujjwala Yojana [LPG connections for BPL women], Ujala scheme [affordable LEDs] and neem coated urea.”
According to NITI Aayog estimates, the tenders for the health scheme would be rolled out by July, and the scheme would be launched on October 2. Challenges such as bringing all states on board, especially those ruled by non-BJP governments, merging the existing state insurance schemes with the national one, and the states' decision over whether to go for a trust-based model or a private insurance model, are currently being worked on at the meeting of state health department officials in the capital.
With this “giga health reform”, the government expects the $65 billion pharma and $12 billion medical devices industry to double in the next five years. “Can we produce affordable pharma products and medical devices of global standards? That is the real challenge,” the minister said.
Kumar added that Namo-Care cannot be effectively implemented in the currently “fragmented ecosystem” of the pharma industry. The government accordingly intends to come up with a new pharma policy which will “unify and synergize” the pharma and medical devices sector. The different aspects include the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), manufacturing, R&D, financing, quality control, drug control, price control and medical devices. “The pharma and medical devices industry has to take up the Namo-Care challenge in coordination with the Make in India initiative of the government to ensure 360 degree health security for all. I have given it the ‘3A formula’ – Availability, Authenticity and Affordability – without compromising upon the quality,” the minister said.
In the last one year, Kumar's ministry has been emphasizing on the affordability and quality of pharmaceuticals in the country, especially after Prime Minister Modi's announcement last April on making generic drugs mandatory. However, as experts, including doctors have pointed out, the quality and availability of generic drugs in the country remain an issue.
