Should Medical Facilities In Govt Hospitals Be Chargeable?

As per Gazette notification dated July 7, all the medical facilities in govt. run hospitals are now chargeable from Rs 50 to 500. The BPL patients have been exempted. The Government expenditure on healthcare in India is only 1.04% of GDP which is about 4 % of total expenditure, less than 30% of total health spending which is Rs. 957 per capita at current market prices (1 US dollar = 65.04 Indian Rupee). On per capita basis the Central Government’s share of this is Rs.

325 while state government’s share is Rs. 632.[Government of India (2014) National health policy draft]. As per WHO data out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) in India has declined from 91.4 to 89.2 during the decade of 1995 to 2014. The cause may be the initiatives taken by GOI, especially for BPL category. This has led to mushrooming of Private Insurance providers in the health sector. In spite of a huge infrastructure…