Social Inequality in Access to Public Health Care
HEALTH
FOR ALL:
Social
Inequality in Access to Public Health Care
The
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the
fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, caste,
religion, cultural belief, economic or social condition. The Indian
Healthcare has made rapid strides in recent years both domestically and in
Global markets. India spends 5.7% of its GDP on Healthcare and provides
employment to 4 Million people. Over the last few decades India’s large public
infrastructure and national disease control programmes have succeeded in
eradicating major diseases. There is also a significant improvement on our key
health indicators - life expectancy, infant mortality, health & hygiene and
morbidity besides the control of TB, Malaria and AIDS.
Yet
in reality, more than 4.6 billion people living in developing nations do not
have access to modern medical attention. In September 2000, 189 countries of
the United Nations embraced the new millennium by adopting the Millennium
Development Goals targeting global healthcare, poverty, and hunger. Three out
of the eight goals targeted by 2015 are directly linked to the advancement of
health development. Rural healthcare and urban
healthcare, and between socio-economic
groups and between the most disadvantaged areas are mainly lacking of health
care facilities.
The challenge now is to provide universal
healthcare. This is the stated objective of the 2002 National Health Policy,
which aims at providing acceptable standards of good health to the general
population. It seeks to achieve this by upgrading the existing infrastructure,
establishing new infrastructure in deficient areas and improving access to the
public health system. To this end, the Government launched the National Rural
Health Mission in 2005 “to carry out basic architectural correction in the
health care delivery system”.
The 3rd India Health Summit with the theme
“Universal Healthcare: India Challenges” on 21-22 November 2005 at Hotel Hyatt
Regency, New Delhi, organised by Cember
of Indian Industry in association with Indian Healthcare Federation, bring the
people to assess
different aspects that may contribute to the enhancement of universal health
care access. Most importantly, it is crucial to address the equality of health
care access and closing the gap between developed and developing nations, and
gap between different regions and population groups within country.
The
summit would be addressed by Shiela Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi; Prasanna
Hoda, Secretary, Ministry of Health; Analjit Singh, CMD, Max Healthcare; Dr
Mohan Chellappa, MD, John Hopkins; Sachin Pilot, Member of Parliament; Dr
Prathap Reddy, Chairman. Apollo Hospitals Group; Radha, CEO, Sri Ramachandran
Medical College & Research
Institute and Dr Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Madfa, Minister of health, UAE, amongst
many others.
In
matters of health care, the Scheduled Tribes are disadvantaged due to physical
isolation from the mainstream population around which principal health
facilities and services are located. Moreover, they are scattered and sparsely
distributed within their territory making it difficult to access even free
services. On the other hand, the Scheduled Castes have always been residing in
villages settled by the dominant groups of population and hence do not suffer
from such physical isolation. Health institutions are as close to them as to
the other population, the dominant or upper castes. Hypothetically, access to
public health care should be as good as or at par with the non-scheduled
population. However, the Scheduled Castes face social discrimination on account
of traditional restrictions on access to public facilities including health
services.
Another thing in the debate is on governments to increase
accessibility of medical treatment is to rely on the funds released by Global
Health Fund. For example,
Harpal Singh, CII felt that the name 'Medical
Tourism' should be rechristened 'Medical Value Travel' which means that those
who come to
To promote this inclusiveness, special sessions will be organized
at the Summit, on universal healthcare, rural healthcare and urban healthcare to narrow the health gap in childhood and throughout life
between socio-economic groups and between the most disadvantaged areas and the
rest of the Country Topics included in this review start with the early years
and then focus on lifestyles, use of primary health services, health status and
mental well being, and finally social differences in mortality. The
NFHS data and studies clearly shows that a higher percentage of SCs and STs in
Giving this information to journalists at a
press briefing organized by CII today, Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII Health
Committee and Executive Direcotr, Escorts Heart Institute& Research Centre,
said that it had been estimated that if 'Healthcare for All' had to become a
reality by 2010 India would need an investment of Rs. 1 trillion. A study conducted by CII and Escorts Heart
Institute revealed that if India has to meet the target of taking healthcare to
all parts of the country, it would need Rs1 trillion or US$150bn, which was
short by about 60%. "This is a challenge as well an opportunity for NGOs
and foreign investors to join hands", he said. In order to make this a
reality the CII Health Summits is a way to update ourselves, Dr. Trehan added.
He declared that the target of the Third Summit was to set
up a Task Force to bring the healthcare system all over the country on a
cohesive level and deal with issues of accreditation and Quality standards by
2006. The third task before the