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Written By: Admin | Published : August 10, 2012 10:00 AM IST
The Planning Commission s intention to corporatise healthcare didn t go down well with people particularly health activists and now they re reconsidering the draft. Deputy Chairman Montek Ahluwalia met some members of the high-level expert group (HLEG) on universal health coverage (UHC) and indicated that the commission intends to reconsider its proposal. The earlier draft had suggested a change in the healthcare sector by ending the Govt s role in providing healthcare and passing on the services to private corporates along the lines of the the managed care system that is followed by countries like US and Mexico.
Dr Reddy after meeting Ahluwalia told a leading daily "The proposal is still a draft and has not been finalized. The Commission has sought the comments of both the HLEG and the health ministry and intends to revise the draft next week. We will send our concerns and point out the recommendations we made in our report earlier, some of which may not have been correctly interpreted."
Health Ministry reservations
The Health Ministry also got in the fray by suggesting that the Commission had overlooked their suggestion. The ministry is also angered by the proposed 1.5 % total GDP expenditure on healthcare as opposed to the 2.5% suggested in the Budget.
The ministry also felt that proposal s National Health Mission (NHM) would neglect rural areas which require more attention. The ministry says that it was decided in a recent meeting that there will be a NHM with two sub-missions National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). While the implementation structure will be common for both, the resource allocation and strategy both for rural and urban areas will be in keeping with their respective needs.
The letter says, "The health set-ups in rural areas conform to a uniform pattern, while in urban areas it varies widely not only from state to state but also for different category of local bodies within a state such as mega cities, metropolitan cities or municipal towns. Hence, there cannot be a uniform approach for both rural and urban areas. It must also be taken into account that the Cabinet has already approved the continuation of NRHM during the 12th Plan. A separate proposal for NUHM is under formulation."
The ministry also points to how the Plan panel document has used the recommendations on UHC by the HLEG "rather selectively" with focus on a managed care approach with an enhanced role for the private sector.
"The suggested pilot models heavily promote corporatization of health. The ministry has been advocating developing a strong public health system to be supplemented by private sector participation. This has also been highlighted by HLEG which advocates strengthening of primary care as well as district hospitals," the letter added.
The Plan panel s prescription of a privatised healthcare diminishes the Govt s role in delivering primary healthcare. According to the document they ll just provide The Plan panel's prescription of a privatized healthcare will diminish the role of government in delivering primary healthcare. It will only provide essentials like neonatal healthcare and will the leave more lucrative treatments to private players. This will force cash strapped government hospitals to compete with private players. Instead of the centre providing healthcare services most health funds will now be available to individual states which can result in disparity and unequal fund allocations.
Also read: What the health activists didn't like in the proposal
