Apex Court rings a warning bell on decrepit healthcare system
Politics should be centered on universal healthcare - JP calls for public debate

Hyderabad, Dec. 21 - Lok Satta Party today said that the observations made by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court on the appalling state of the healthcare system in our country serve as a timely and stark warning. "This situation is the direct consequence of the previous and successive governments' apathetic and irresponsible approach guided by ulterior motives. These governments have been promoting rampant profit-making through corporate hospitals and are clearly abdicating their duty of providing affordable and universal public healthcare", Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said.

Over 60 lakh people are annually falling below the poverty line (in AP) and even farmers are being driven to commit suicide, simply because of unaffordable hospital costs. The governments have totally failed in providing accessible and affordable healthcare to crores of ordinary citizens, especially those living in the rural and agency areas, even in cases of malaria, typhoid, chikungunya and pregnancy-and-childbirth. Preventive healthcare is in a state of total disarray. Currently, one-fourth of the hospitals providing relatively decent levels of healthcare are run by charitable foundations/establishments. However, they cannot replace the state as the guarantor and provider of universal and affordable healthcare to every citizen.

Dr. JP strongly condemned the present State government that has been touting Aarogya Sri - a scheme that covers the hospitalization costs for a few patients and that too only for a very limited number of diseases. "It cannot substitute a comprehensive healthcare system. Aarogya Sri should be termed Corporate Sri as nearly 95% of the public resources are being diverted to large, corporate hospitals. This, even as the thousands of sub-centers and Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) are languishing due to inadquate resource allocation, lack of even the basic medicines and poor management", he said. He called for a public debate on the decerpit healthcare sysytem and the present government's Arogya sri program. "Lok Satta Party's government will strengthen thw preventive and primary healthcare system on a war-footing. It will provide free and top-quality healthcare to all citizens as a matter of right, and with the minimum of burden to the exchequer. Mainstream parties, beholden to vested interests, lack the political will and capacity to deliver upon this urgent requirement. Politicas should be centered on the pressing issue of affordable, accessible and universal healthcare", Dr. JP concluded.