India is committed to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all by 2030. UHC entails ensuring all people have access to quality health services including prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliation without incurring financial hardship. For India to achieve UHC, it is essential that both private enterprises and the government come together. India has already witnessed highly successful Public Private Partnerships (PPP) collaborations in areas like diagnostics and dialysis. For example, the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program (PMNDP) introduced in 2016 has enabled private enterprises to set up PPP dialysis centres in over 21 States and UTs where the low-income group can avail of free dialysis, resulting in 20 million plus dialysis sessions annually. In the last few years, the private healthcare sector’s finest hour came during the Covid-19 pandemic when they collaborated with the government across multiple areas including allocation of nearly 80 percent of private sector hospital beds to Covid-19 patients; contributing to the majority of India’s Covid-19 vaccine production and achieving last-mile vaccine delivery to manage the crisis.
