On India’s Turn to Preside G-20, Healthcare shall take a Front Row.

NEWS HIGHLIGHT 

Theme : Health & Education 
Paper:GS - 2

Health needs to be a central agenda for the G20 2023. It has been one of the priority areas for G20 deliberations since 2017, when the first meeting of health ministers of G20 countries was organized by the German presidency.

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Context
2. Prioritizing Health
3. Global Engagements towards Healthcare Systems
4. New Approaches towards development of Healthcare Systems
5. India’s Presidency : Towards Inclusive Healthcare
6. Road Ahead

Context : Health needs to be a central agenda for the G20 2023. It has been one of the priority areas for G20 deliberations since 2017, when the first meeting of health ministers of G20 countries was organized by the German presidency.
 

Prioritizing Health : 

• An annual G20 meeting of health ministers and a joint health and finance task force reflects the seriousness the subject has gained.
• The Berlin Declaration 2017 of the G20 health ministers provided a composite approach focusing on pandemic preparedness, health system strengthening and tackling antimicrobial resistance.
• The Covid-19 pandemic gave added urgency to pandemic preparedness and the Indonesian presidency in 2022 made it the major focus. The Indian presidency needs to advance these agendas.

Global Engagements towards Healthcare Systems : 

• Universal Health Coverage (UHC): The concept of UHC was born in the 2000s to prevent catastrophic medical expenditures due to secondary and tertiary level hospital services by universalizing health insurance coverage.
• UHC as a strategy to ensure healthcare for all: The UHC has been the big global approach for health systems strengthening since 2010, also adopted in 2015 as the strategy for Sustainable Development Goal-3 on ensuring healthcare for all at all ages.
• Limited impact of UHC: However, the limited impact of this narrow strategy was soon evident, with expenditures on outdoor services becoming catastrophic for poor households and preventing access to necessary healthcare and medicines, while many unnecessary/irrational medical interventions were being undertaken.

New Approaches towards development of Healthcare Systems : 

• Highlighted the need to prioritize primary healthcare (PHC): In 2018, the Astana Conference organized by WHO and UNICEF put out a declaration stating that primary healthcare (PHC) is essential for fulfilling the UHC objectives.
• Combined UHC- PHC approach: In 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted the combined UHC-PHC approach as a political declaration.
• World bank report on benefits of PHC services during pandemic: The World Bank published a report in 2021, “Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19”. The dominant hospital-centered medical system is becoming unaffordable even for the high-income countries, as apparent during the 2008 recession and subsequently.

India’s Presidency : Towards Inclusive Healthcare : 

• National Health mission and dedicated health facilities: Lessons from the National Health Mission for strengthening public health delivery; the HIV-control programme’s successful involvement of affected persons/communities and a complex well-managed service structure.
• Democratized health knowledge: Pluralism of health knowledge systems, each independently supported within the national health system.
• Certified Health personnel: Health personnel such as the ASHAs, mid-level health providers and wellness centers, traditional community healthcare providers with voluntary quality certification;
• R&D and widely acknowledged pharmaceutical capacity: Research designed for validation of traditional systems; pharmaceutical and vaccines production capacity;
• Digital health as an example: Developments in digital health; social insurance schemes and people’s hospital models by civil society.

Road Ahead : 

• Drafting of PHC-with-UHC (a PHC 2.0) with a broad global consensus and commitment to a more sustainable and people-empowering health system. 
• Pursuing such an agenda would involve much dialogue within countries, regions and globally. 

FAQs : 

1. What is the concept of UHC ?

ANS. 

• The concept of UHC was born in the 2000s to prevent catastrophic medical expenditures due to secondary and tertiary level hospital services by universalizing health insurance coverage.
• UHC as a strategy to ensure healthcare for all: The UHC has been the big global approach for health systems strengthening since 2010, also adopted in 2015 as the strategy for Sustainable Development Goal-3 on ensuring healthcare for all at all ages.

2. What was the Berlin Declaration of 2017 about?

ANS. The Berlin Declaration 2017 of the G20 health ministers provided a composite approach focusing on pandemic preparedness, health system strengthening and tackling antimicrobial resistance.