Click here for Part I
Why in news?
NITI Aayog’s PPP model approach on Public healthcare is misguided.
What are the significance of a privatised system?
- Individualised care is easier in private than in government institutions.
- For high level treatments like surgery where more than one option is available.
- A privatised system can also provide better nursing and allied services.
- It can provide better facilities for attendants and other care-givers.
- Privatisation has helped improve health services
What are the issues with this approach?
- Privatisation may lead to steep hike in health expenditures like medical consultations, drugs and devices, medical tests and hospitalisation.
- There are complaints over many private health care firms that, they prescribe diagnosis and treatments which patients actually don’t require.
- Monitoring and regulation costs are too high to ensure quality in this sector and this will be doubly problematic in a country like India.
- There is a lack of administrative reform on Public health capacity of the state.
- The information irregularities among patients, doctors, hospitals and the government are too vast.
- This will benefit the private healthcare providers and paves the way for lobbying.
What measures can be taken?
- India committed to raise spending on health to 2.5 per cent of the GDP.
- Instead of implementing private sectors over public health care, government can involve them in few services.
- The elite working classes of the nation has specialised med claim policies provided by the government, such approaches can be followed for public.
- Patients can be given subsidies for the private treatments, based on facilities which are not available in public institutions.
Source: Business Standard
