Jammu, Aug 05: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that India is fast emerging as the world’s favourite cost-effective healthcare destination. He said the country has already taken a lead in the areas of Preventive Healthcare and Integrated healthcare.
Dr Jitendra Singh said this while inaugurating the Annual Conference of Indian Academy of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery organised by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspeciality Hospital at Convention Centre, Jammu.
Dr Singh asserted that Ayushman Bharat is so far the world’s best health insurance scheme and credit goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having conceptualised it. “This is possibly the only health insurance scheme in the world which offers the option of seeking insurance cover even for a pre-existing disease, for example if today a person is detected having cancer, he/she can thereafter go and get himself insured to receive the financial support for treatment which is not seen anywhere even among the developed nations,” he added.
By bringing in Ayushman Bharat, India has moved from a sectoral and segmented approach to health service delivery to a comprehensive need-based health care service, he said.
The union minister added, “The last 9 years have turned India into a cost-effective medical destination and this has been possible because of several path-breaking healthcare reforms and enabling provisions brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he took over in 2014. Previously India was hardly known for any preventive healthcare but today India is recognised as the vaccination hub of the world having produced DNA Covid Vaccine, the world’s first intra-nasal Covid Vaccine, India’s first indigenously developed vaccine CERVAVAC for the prevention of cervical cancer and many other vaccines for different diseases.”
Dr Jitendra said that healthcare has been the top priority of this government which can be judged by the statistics that from mere 145 medical colleges, the number has increased to 260, 16 AIIMS, hundreds of Dialysis Centres, etc. India has taken a quantum leap in the start-up ecosystem, space technology the recent being launch of Chandrayaan-3, Quantum Technology etc, he added.
