Lamenting the virtual collapse of public health system in major parts of the country, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today said rural families are falling into debt trap due to expensive private health sector.
In large parts of the country, particularly in central and eastern India and in tribal belts, he said public health system is "not abysmal but has collapsed".
"Indebtedness caused by private health sector is one of the primary determinants of rural poverty. In terms of health poverty, the indicators are getting worse. Seventy per cent of the expenditure in health in India is private expenditure.
"The enormous burden of this expenditure is coming on to the rural families particularly, which is leading to heightened indebtedness and vulnerability along the poverty canvass," the Union Rural Development Minister said at 'The Week Health Summit' here.
He also said health indicators in most parts of the world have reached where they are not because of technological advances in medical area but because of basic improvements in water supply and sanitation.
"My experience has taught me that answer to public health lies outside medical fraternity and sooner we recognise social and political determinants, the better off we would be," Ramesh said
"We have recognised the linkage between the quality of water that we drink and health outcomes but I am sad that sanitation is no where being near the nation's agenda," he said.
He was of the view that until the basics of public health is fixed, the country continued to be confronted with the "paradox" of the country having a growing tertiary health sector but a "woefully underdeveloped, underfunded, undermanaged and poorly organised" primary health sector.
Claiming that 80 per cent of cost incurred on the health care is to be borne by patients themselves, Biocon Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the burden of health care is being passed to patients as the country spends less than one per cent of its GDP on the healthcare.
"Availability and accessibility to health care remain a critical factor," Mazumdar-Shaw said.
Insisting on the use of the Tamil Nadu model for the distribution of drugs to the citizens, she said it was imperative for the state governments to follow the e-procurement model.
"Health care costs are spiralling out of control globally even for most developed economies and I think it is a serious cause for concern for every economy that is trying to provide basic access to health care to everyone," she said.
She said affordability is a key issue and now there is a shift to generic drugs.
"This is where a country like India has a genuine advantage because India produces one of the largest quantity of low cost generic drugs for the patients across the world and we must ensure that its benefits percolate down to our own citizens," she said.
Deliberating on the problems faced by India, Ramesh noted that Kenya, which has a poor economic growth, has reduced its infant mortality rate at a much faster rate in five years than what India has not been able to do in the last 25 years.
"Even today Bangladesh, a country much poorer to India, has superior health outcomes compared to many states of our country including the advanced states like Karnataka and Gujarat," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.