Jaipur : ‘State washing hands of health services?’

JAIPUR: Why should healthcare be a matter of "affordable rates”? The provision of health services is a sovereign function of the state. To reduce out-of-pocket expenses on health, the state must ideally provide free health services. The promise of “affordable healthcare,” thus, is as good as relinquishing the duties of the government, aver activists working in the health sector in the state.

Chhaya Pachauli of NGO Prayas says 80 per cent of out-patients and 60 per cent of the state’s in-patients already use private health service providers.

Instead of expanding the provision of health services, the state government is keen on increasing insurance cover for health. This would benefit private players in healthcare more than anyone else. Funds that could go into strengthening the state government’s hospital network are used in bolstering private hospitals.

The budget for free medicines remains almost unchanged from last year. In fact, there is a slight reduction, from Rs 367 crore to Rs 360 crore this year.

Adjusted for inflation, this means shrinkage. There are announcements of augmenting the bed capacities of government hospitals this year. If the numbers of beds go up, there will be more patients. The government, however, has made no provision for the larger number of free medicines that will be needed. The budget for the diagnostics scheme has actually been reduced.

Pachauli says that there is no mechanism to keep an eye on the practices adopted by private practitioners – are they providing services of desirable quality, or is there a relentless over-medication and diagnosis?

The budget for the National Rural Health Mission has also been marginally slashed – what this means is that there will be fewer resources now for disease prevention measures in rural areas.

Delhi-based Sabu George, considered an expert in matters related to female foeticide, said of the health proposals in the state Budget, “The provisions are elitist. In Canada and the UK, ordinary citizens are taken care of by the state. In India, where the poor have no advantages at all, and often don’t even so much as know a doctor, they are pushed to pay large sums for healthcare.”