Ayurveda conquers Swiss, marches towards Germany and Italy
NEWDELHI: Having tasted success in getting Switzerland to recognise India’s traditional Ayurveda system in insurance reimbursement, the NDA government has now shifted its focus to its neighbours, Italy and Germany.
“After Switzerland, we are actively talking to other European nations to win similar recognitions for our Ayurvedic treatments, which will give an edge to our practioners and institutions to go and work abroad,” commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman told HT. “With this recognition, people can use these ayurvedic treatments and can get a refund for those treatments, medicines and therapies.”
India itself gets limited cover for Ayurveda-based medical treatment and therapies.
The government’s move will also help increase the availability of traditional Indian medicines globally, specifically in Switzerland from mid 2017, after Swiss federal law on therapeutic products gets amended.
“Switzerland has among the highest medical standards in the world. Hence, getting a foothold in Switzerland will benefit us get into the rest of the Europe and the world at large,” Ajit M Sharan, secretary, Ministry of Ayush (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopath), told HT.
The Swiss government has held Chinese and European traditional medicine, as well as homeopathy apart from Ayurvedic therapies as eligible for federal funding. About 210 plants and 250 traditional formulations have been recognised by it, and are listed under ayurveda pharmacopeia and ayurveda formulary published by the Ayush ministry.
Health insurers used to refuse reimbursements for patients who consulted Ayurveda physicians and followed prescribed medicines, including those with supplementary coverage for alternative therapies.
“After getting the recognition, practioners in ayurvedic medicines will prepare and sell individualised preparations to patients in their own clinics in these countries,” Sitharaman said.
“There are many Ayurveda practitioners and there is a lot of ambiguity in their performance, method of practice and what they advice. This is not very conducive for the insurance field, since there is a large amount of variation for a single situation,” Yashish Dahiya, CEO, PolicyBazaar.com, a portal for comparing insurance policies, told HT.
However, most insurers today, including Royal Sundaram, Max Bupa, Religare, Apollo Munich, Hdfc Ergo, Tata Aig, Universal Soompo and New India Assurance, offer coverage for Ayush.
Experts see this as a sign of the market evolving slowly, but steadily. “Though we offer these insurances, we don’t sell them aggressively as claims are minimal,” said an official from a leading insurance firm.