“I’m sorry to say there’s no such thing as the perfect health system and it certainly doesn’t reside in one country,” says Mark Britnell, author of the recently launched “In search of the perfect health system.”

But the good news, he says, is there are perfect examples of great healthcare around the world, listing out 12 of them.

India’s “innovation, flair and speed” finds a mention, reflected in Aravind Eye Care, Narayana Health and Apollo Hospitals, and their use of volumes to raise quality of service and reduce costs.

But it's disappointing that a country growing at 7- 8 per cent a year is seeing limited or little progress in universal healthcare, says Britnell. At 4.1 per cent of GDP, India’s healthcare spend is lower than the Asian average of 6 per cent.

The best systems blend the United Kingdom and Singapore ways. And they impress because “they both espouse universal healthcare, but go about it in slightly different ways,” says Britnell, whose travelled to over 60 countries as Chairman of KPMG Global Health. An advocate for universal healthcare, he explains its importance. “First, morally, the argument is so strong that we cannot afford to lose lives unnecessarily. I think irrespective of your religion or your belief – there is a strong moral cause, but I also think there is a strong economic cause.” Citing work done for the South African government (where universal healthcare was promised in 14 years), he says that a 30-year economic model was used to show how investment in healthcare was actually “a value creator not just a cost”. Because for every extra year of life you could guarantee in South Africa over the long term, it stimulated the economy further.

Universal healthcare is an idea whose time has come, and it is good for the people and for business. “And if it’s good for people and good for business, guess what, it's good for politicians,” he quips. South Korean politicians were astute enough to realise that people needed to be given a dividend from a growing economy. Universal Health systems were implemented there in 12 years. “Politicians who over-promise and under-deliver are rarely forgiven by the population and my concern is that by saying universal healthcare will be in place by 2019… that’s an almost impossible task,” he says of India’s plan.

The vision is brilliant, but without a fully-costed action plan and robust economic model, it's little more than wishful thinking, he says. An economic case can be built if it is planned as a 20/30-year development programme.

Indonesia, Rwanda and Bangladesh have universal health coverage for its citizens, he says. And without doubt, he adds, “It all starts with political will…. and some imagination.”

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