GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of health
GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
India needs a renewed health-care system
Context: For any population, the availability of functional public health systems is literally a question of life and death.
Comparison of Kerala & Maharashtra
COVID-19 case fatality rates are 0.48% for Kerala and 2.04% for Maharashtra, despite both states having similar per capita gross State domestic product (GSDP).
This implies that on average, a COVID-19 patient in Maharashtra has been over four times more likely to die when compared to one in Kerala.
Kerala has per capita two and a half times more government doctors, and an equally higher proportion of government hospital beds when compared to Maharashtra,
Kerala fund allocation on public health per capita is over one and half times higher than that of Maharashtra.
Despite Maharashtra having a large private health-care sector, its weak public health system has proved to be a critical deficiency.
Way Ahead
Arrest Decline in Funding: Since 2017-18, Union government allocations for the National Health Mission have declined in real terms. Central allocation for the National Urban Health Mission is ₹1,000 crore, which amounts to less than ₹2 per month per urban Indian. This situation must change.
Preventing further privatisation of the health sector: Proposals for handing over public hospitals to private operators under the ‘Viability Gap Funding’ would lead to steep increase in healthcare costs.
Regulation of private hospitals: Learning from stark market failures during the COVID-19 pandemic, comprehensive regulation of private health care in public interest now must be a critical agenda of government
Effective implementation of CEA: Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act is not effectively implemented due to a major delay in notification of central minimum standards, and failure to develop the central framework for regulation of rates.
