The Planning Commission today said expansion of healthcare will be one of its top priorities during the 12th five-year Plan (2012-17) and it aims to increase spending in the sector to 2.5 per cent of the GDP from around 1 per cent at present by the end of the period.

“In the 12th Plan, we hope that we will be able to increase the percentage of both Central and State Government spending (on health) as a percentage of GDP somewhere up to 2.5 per cent from a little over 1 per cent,” the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI seminar.

The healthcare sector, he said, was a focus area in the ongoing 11th Plan as well and the effort will continue in the 12th Plan.

“We tried to make a start in the 11th Plan, but it has to continue in the 12th Plan. India spends too little on the public sector in health,” Mr Ahluwalia said.

In its Approach Paper to the 12th Plan, which was approved by the full Planning Commission headed by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, last month, the Plan panel had emphasised on increased spending in social sectors, including health and education.

It had also called for greater public-private partnership in the sector.

Mr Ahluwalia, while addressing the seminar, said the Srinath Reddy Committee on Healthcare will submit its report by the end of this month.

The high-level expert group was set up by the Planning Commission in 2010 to examine the prospects for a universal health cover and to develop a blueprint and investment plan for meeting the human resource requirement to achieve the objective of health insurance for all by 2020.

Mr Ahluwalia termed current spending on healthcare as “skewed”, with the Government contributing only a small portion.

He also said that though the private sector is present in a big way in the health segment, there is a big difference in the quality of service provided by non-State actors.

“In the private sector, there is incredible variety. On the one end, we have some very high-end hospitals and treatment facilities of global standards, which, however, only a fraction of the population can afford and on the other hand, we have hospitals, which are of poor standard,” Mr Ahluwalia said.

“We have some of the best doctors in the world and also quacks,” the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman added.

He also expressed concern over the low rate of health insurance penetration, even among organised sector employees, and said employers need to make efforts for bringing their staff under appropriate covers.

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