Public health system has limitations in providing universal health coverage. Do you think that the private sector could help in bridging the gap? What other viable alternatives would you suggest?

Universal health coverage means everyone receives quality health services without financial hardship. India's public system alone cannot deliver it: government health spending is only around 2 per cent of GDP, rural infrastructure and specialist shortages persist, and out-of-pocket expenditure — though declining — still hovers near 39 per cent of health spending, pushing families into poverty.

Can the private sector bridge the gap?

• It already provides the bulk of outpatient care and a large share of hospitalizations (NSS 75th round), and dominates diagnostics and tertiary care.
• Strategic purchasing harnesses it: Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY offers Rs 5 lakh cover per family using a largely private empanelled network, extended in 2024 to all citizens above 70; PPPs run dialysis (PMNDP), diagnostics and ambulance services.
• Caveats: cost escalation, supplier-induced demand, urban concentration and patchy adoption of the Clinical Establishments Act demand standard treatment guidelines, price transparency and grievance redress.

Other viable alternatives

• Primary-care backbone: over 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs delivering preventive and promotive care close to homes.
• Public provisioning: PM-ABHIM for district and critical-care infrastructure, more government medical colleges, community health officers and nursing cadres.
• Free drugs and diagnostics: Jan Aushadhi kendras; Tamil Nadu's TNMSC and Rajasthan's free-medicines model.
• Digital health: ABDM records and eSanjeevani teleconsultations for remote access.
• Raise public spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP (National Health Policy, 2017).

The pragmatic UHC path is regulated private participation under strategic purchasing, anchored in a strengthened, publicly funded primary-care system.