Basic health care to continue in public domain: Indian PM
September 25, 2005
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said bulk of the provision on basic health services and medical care, particularly for poorer sections of society will continue to be in public domain for many more decades.
The expansion of private health care, which was a happy phenomenon, would address the needs of the affluent and those covered by organised medical care programmes, he said at the convocation function at All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.
However, millions of people living below the poverty line and in our rural areas would continue to depend on government as the primary health care provider, he added.
”Private care cannot be the immediate answer to the needs of those who do not have basic purchasing power.” AIIMS and other similar institutions and national policy makers would have to refashion the health care system to meet the needs of this segment of society. The National Rural Health Mission that had been recently launched by the government would take care of primary halth care issues. Polices must be framed to meet the hospital care needs also, the Prime Minister said.
”A balance needs to be struck between government and private initiative in this context.” Investment in health, while essential for economic progress, was not motivated purely by economic considerations. ”We recognise health as an inalienable human right that every individual could justly claim, so that he or she could develop to full potential,” he said.
So long as wide health inequalities existed in the country and access to essential health care was not universally assured, we would be falling short in both our economic planning and in our moral obligation to all citizens, he added.