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Privatisation of health care comes under attack
New Delhi, March 21: The government has come under attack for trying to shift healthcare more toward the private sector through tax concessions and other financial incentives in the 2003-2004 budget.
New Delhi, March 21: The government has come under attack for trying to shift healthcare more toward the private sector through tax concessions and other financial incentives in the 2003-2004 budget.
"Private hospital is good for those with money but is
like a dreamland to a poor person," Umesh Kapil, professor of
human nutrition at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS) here told.
In a country where 40 per cent of families are poor, the private hospital set up in the urban areas will never be able to meet their health needs, he said adding "even the AIIMS is gradually becoming out of reach to below poverty line families."
"The present budget is heavily loaded in favour of a 15 per cent affluent minority while neglecting the basic health needs of the rest of the 85 per cent of our population," N H Antia, director of the Mumbai-based foundation for research in community health said in an interview.
Antia said the budget demonstrates how the government readily conforms to the dictates of the international agencies like the World Bank while ignoring the "alternative health strategy" proposed by a joint panel of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) some years ago. Bureau Report
In a country where 40 per cent of families are poor, the private hospital set up in the urban areas will never be able to meet their health needs, he said adding "even the AIIMS is gradually becoming out of reach to below poverty line families."
"The present budget is heavily loaded in favour of a 15 per cent affluent minority while neglecting the basic health needs of the rest of the 85 per cent of our population," N H Antia, director of the Mumbai-based foundation for research in community health said in an interview.
Antia said the budget demonstrates how the government readily conforms to the dictates of the international agencies like the World Bank while ignoring the "alternative health strategy" proposed by a joint panel of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) some years ago. Bureau Report