Health insurance is a type of insurance coverage that typically pays for a medical, surgical, prescription drug, and sometimes dental expenses incurred by the insured. Health insurance can reimburse the insured for expenses incurred from illness or injury, or pay the care provider directly. 

Ashish Kumar Jha, Preventive Healthcare and Fitness coach, Witty Consultancy Services, is preventive health care and fitness coach, a certified personal fitness trainer and art of living trainer, and a spine care and posture yoga coach.

Witty Consultancy Services delivers Health which you would admire throughout your life to Individuals and Corporate Globally.

Challenges in a world coping with COVID-19

Ashish explains, “Presently, healthcare is very challenging. This COVID has really evolved healthcare because before healthcare, there were no regularities as the private players are charging so high that the general public is finding it as a real challenge which is costing. So providing universal health coverage is very challenging right now. If we talk of the Indian government, they declared Rs. 2000 crore rupees for each and every person in India and there are approx. 130 crore people in India. So, according to that, it is really low. Not only COVID, but there are many other lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardio cardiovascular problems, which are prominent in today's world, so they must concentrate on this. Also, deployment of the skilled medical persons in rural areas is also an important point to be discussed. Due to the unavailability of doctors and staff, the death rate goes up. Also, today's private players are charging high fees from the patients hence people have this mentality that if they fall ill, they will be looted in the hospital. So, I think these three are the real challenges in the healthcare sector presently,” he says.

Make the people aware

Ashish sheds light on the subject, “Yes, there are inequalities presently, but I personally think that Health Awareness should be there in the government, public sector, and private sector so as to take some initiatives to make the people aware. For example, people were not wearing masks or following the protocol for COVID, our Hon. The Prime Minister came on the television and made them aware and then people started following the protocols. So there should be an awareness program for the people in the rural areas for following the COVID guidelines as a lot of people are getting infected but nobody is there to check, no officials are there to check and nobody is doing anything about it. Also, having a good routine of exercises doesn't prove that you won’t be susceptible to COVID. So that is where my startup comes into the picture, it is into preventive health care where we basically help corporate people, to get complete body checkups at regular intervals which allows them to know what they are going to face in these kinds of problems in a certain time. So they take care of themselves from the start when they're tested, not only for COVID but also for diabetes. I have seen people having blood sugar at borderline for 28 years and if the blood sugar level increases from that position definitely they will get diabetes at an early age. So, if they are tested at this moment they have the idea of how to take care of themselves by consulting me for their fitness program where I give them proper training, with a proper diet, so that they can control it. So, this is what I do and basically, this is what I think about the healthcare advisors program,” he says.

Money cannot be a constraint for the healthcare 

Ashish shares his thoughts, “Of course, you don't have money, this cannot be constrained actually for healthcare. You have to think about your health and learn that it should always be your first priority and hence it will drastically reduce your investment because once you are infected or diseased you have to invest in hospitals. So, health is always at a very high priority. And this kind of investment can enable healthcare to get things done, you can see through technology these days there are so many things coming in like AI data science, which are contributing to healthcare. So, this must be encouraged not to perform the duties, can say this will only make the healthcare affordable,” he says.

Policies must be considered to protect people's health 

Ashish talks on the subject, “Basically, there is so much inequality in inequitable and inefficient methods of healthcare financing right. So, if a person goes to the hospital, the treatment is always out of pocket. So, the payment they have to do, which is really whooping for them and their family members. So eventually somebody sells their land, somebody sells their farmland or something else, just to get operated. Today's private health sector and government health sector should come at the same level, from the costing perspective. Today's private healthcare is charging so much of a fee, which is not affordable. The government is charging nominal fees but the facility is not good there, people have no bed, many doctors are not good, and the facilities are not good so they have to go to the private sector as they do not have any choice. So, the private sector and the government sector should come at an equal level. So that it can make many affordable things much affordable healthcare for the normal public. I think this should be improved. So you can say like, the equipment's what we use in hospitals; their quality should be improved because, before COVID, there were technologies, there were devices, but that was not at the best level. Like you can say, make ventilators. They were ventilators at that moment also without before COVID but the number of ventilators was so low, the quality of the ventilator was not great. So, this should be improved. Policies should come that a hospital should have all the devices and that their hospital should be audited once a year on the basis of quality. So this is how we can ensure health for all,” he says.

(Edited by Rabia Mistry Mulla)