Arun Jaitley: Need GST Council like Institution in Healthcare

NEW DELHI:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pitched for the need to developing a federal institution like the GST Council for the healthcare sector to ensure that welfare benefits from the Central and state government reach poor people.

Healthcare is an area that eminently requires a federal institution, with a merger of existing state schemes and central resources, with the focus on welfare of people, he said.

It is an area where there would be least resistance (for a federal institution), because it’s a welfare targeted programmes where we can move significantly a long way in making sure India remains healthier, he said while addressing the CII Health Summit. Listing out the necessity for setting up such a federal body, he said the states and Centre both spend on healthcare and have their respective schemes. Jaitley said the states have their hospital, and the Centre is also establishing institutes of eminence across the country. The Centre has implemented Ayushman Bharat, and states also have similar schemes, he said.

“All these needs to be merged so that the benefit of these merged resources starts to benefit patient population of the country. Obviously it will be implemented through the states, with Centre coordinating it,” he said.