New Delhi: AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora on Thursday asked the government to increase spending on healthcare saying affordability is still an issue in India, while also seeking regulations on pricing by private healthcare providers.
Participating in the motion of thanks to the President’s address, Arora asserted that healthcare is not a privilege but a fundamental right.
“Affordability of health (care) is still an issue in our country,” he said, adding there are various critical gaps in making the healthcare system affordable. Citing studies, Arora pointed out that around 7.5 per cent of families in India are pushed into poverty because of “one critical healthcare issue in the family”.
“Budgetary allocation is too less as far as healthcare is concerned,” he noted, adding as per National Health Policy 2017, 2.5 per cent of GDP was to be spent on healthcare by 2025. “Still only 0.27 per cent of GDP is being spent on healthcare and only 2 per cent of total budgetary allocation is going towards healthcare,” he noted. Citing a report by SBI which mooted spending on healthcare to be 5 per cent
of GDP, Arora said,”...increase healthcare expenditure to at least 2.5 per cent of GDP, if not 5 per cent.”
Calling for regulations on pricing by private healthcare providers, he said, “Private hospitals charge arbitrarily across states for one reason that there is no control over the charges being charged by them.”
He pointed out that consumables and diagnostic tests are overpriced due to lack of price centralisation and in some cases, even after setting ceiling prices for medical devices like stents, knee replacements, the hospital charges are increased.