Can India look into the US government’s healthcare insurance as a case study to take its Ayushman Bharat to globally accepted delivery parameters?

Ramesh Chand, a 42-year-old chartered accountant in Delhi, woke up in the morning at 4 am with severe pain in the jaw so hard that he thought it would explode. He woke his wife and before they could do anything about it, he became unconscious. His wife called the ambulance and upon arrival at the hospital, he was declared dead. Cause: coronary heart disease.

As we observe a stress awareness month in April, there is cause for concern in India’s context. Stress has reached alarming levels in India. A recent survey conducted by Cigna TTK Health Insurance found that 89% of Indians reported being stressed.

At one point or another most people experience stress which the World Health Organization defines as a state of worry or mental tension and how the body responds to that.

Americans spend more on prescription drugs than any other country. One of the agendas of the Biden-Harris Administration has been to focus on lowering prescription drug prices and making them more affordable for American families.

The fear of Covid-19 virus may have vanished in thin air, with health planners and citizens in India treating it as an “almost-over case”. But it is not. Given the news about long-term Covid infection still rattling many around the world, there is one worrying factor. It is the deep impact the virus has left on the mental health of many, including in India, where the population is ageing, underserved by the health care system, and is uninformed and poor. While we kept analyzing Covid-19 impacts primarily from business, jobs and economy angles, the pandemic has, in fact, exposed the fragility of the health system in India. Further, Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist, in his latest 304-page book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, talks about these fragile health systems and the need to develop a strong infrastructure to combat pandemics in the future.

The contribution of Indian-origin doctors in American healthcare does not need an introduction. Statistically, every seventh American is being attended by an Indian American doctor. The same status will change to every fifth by an Indian doctor soon. That's the growing influence and recognition or the Indian diaspora in American healthcare. To this is also the growing band of public health experts and community health scholars, who are enriching the healthcare sector with their vast repositry of information and scholarly publications.

Growing waistline is not only an American health worry. For Indians too, it is fast becoming a troublesome public health issue, say top US public health experts, including some of Indian origin, who have seen it growing and now becoming a real health challenge. Having lived for 50 springs in India, and now seeing it bloating from the waist worries me too. It’s time to cut that flab before it triggers more unhealthy signs. For these health experts who spoke to The Sunday Guardian at length, the biggest challenge lies in how to beat the post-Covid-19 effect. Their fears come from nearly three years of erratic eating habits, a non-exercise routine which most of us followed during Covid-19 along with our growing love for the couch and binge OTT watching. To them, a return to Indian home-made platter holds the key to beating obesity!