India needs an integrated healthcare system to beat Corona.

The moment we type flight to #Bangalore, we get cab suggestions, return flight fares, coupons, etc., We listen to a song on loop and its shows on the Instagram ad. Type guitar lessons and the ads will haunt you forever to learn guitar. Data mining happens in the most trivial instances in our daily routine. Considering this, the lack of data/ unaffordability in the fight on Coronavirus is a pitfall for our country.

One of the major goals of the Aadhar project was to bring identity to all Indians and in-effect have the data to make quantitative decisions in the hour of need or surveillance. Right now, out of the 135 crore Indians, 122 crore Indians have Aadhar. It was a success considering the sheer number. But we have to ask ourselves what positive externality did it bring to our country in terms of healthcare? Which is the need of the hour!

Healthcare in India unorganized and budget-friendly and the politicians don’t want to bring a change in it due to the costs involved. If we compare it with organized Healthcare in the west, the system makes it impossible to afford healthcare for people who don’t have insurance/employment. In the USA, Barack Obama tried to put forward the idea of #ObamaCare by making healthcare affordable to all but the taxpayers killed the idea.

But for a country like India, what we need a fund which is sponsored by the Indian Government and identity for each citizen. In fact, we have them both; Ayushman Bharat and Aadhar. Ayushman Bharat covers 50 crore families up to 5 lakh per family per year. It was basically an Insurance scheme but with minimal usability. The backbone of such a scheme should be the integration of Hospital networks and integrating the digital payment system. It will address the 2 major goals: Data and affordability.

I think its high time for the Indian government to Integrate healthcare to make it robust and there cannot be a better circumstance to execute it.