5. Accelerate plans to reach the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to access safe, effective, and timely care in an equitable wayWhile PM-JAY is designed to cover 500 million poor people, there are many more millions (the so-called missing middle) who are vulnerable to impoverishing health expenses. They should be brought under financial protection without further delay. In parallel to UHC, India needs to invest in its healthcare provider system so that people living in villages and small towns have timely access to high quality primary care and acute care. While it is easy to create infrastructure, India should find a way to increase health workforce with needed competencies to meet the growing needs of its people. Ayushman Bharat program that encompasses health & wellness clinics to strengthen primary health care, PM-JAY to offer financial protection to as many people who need, ABDM to leverage digital technologies in transforming our health systems, and ABHIM to strengthen health infrastructure needs to be given the maximum funding and political support for it to be impactful.6. To enlarge social protection during crises timesCovid has clearly demonstrated the social cost of the pandemic. No one should go hungry because they lost their jobs. No one should be sleeping on roads because they can’t afford decent housing. No one should sell their meagre assets to survive. No child should leave their education because they can’t afford it. It needs that India should have a system of knowing its people and their socio-economic conditions to transfer the benefits directly to them. The fruits of green revolution be used to feed millions during the times of need. Crores of jandhan accounts be used to transfer monetary support. The best way to provide social protection is to create more jobs. Technological advances drive efficiency. However, they also have the risk of stealing jobs. There should be a fine balance between efficiency and redundancy needed for resilience.7. To become resilient against supply chain disruptionsWe have experienced the helplessness of supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. India has taken sound policy decisions to support indigenous capacity and capability through PLI schemes. It should create emergency national stockpiles of essential drugs and tests.8. To press for global response systems at multilateral bodiesIndia should play a responsible role in strengthening WHO. It should press for intellectual property waivers on critical drugs and vaccines. It should honor its commitments to other countries in accessing drugs and vaccines. Global collaboration and response is essential to face global problems like pandemics and climate change.9. To learn from the pandemic to strengthen its health and social systemsIndia should invest in taking stock of various lessons that the pandemic has thrown at us. It should learn from other countries and it should share its experiences with others. It should enable its states to learn from each other. There should be collaborative learning between public and private health sector players. Innovations that arose in response to the pandemic should be nurtured to become new normal. It should put a pandemic preventive program in place. Threats from zoonotic viruses and microbes should be analyzed and mitigated.India should enter the new year with a resolve to turn adversity into opportunity, weakness into strength, and fragility into resilience.
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