PAV seeks 3 per cent of GDP for healthcare in Central Budget

Visakhapatnam: The Praja Arogya Vedika affiliated to Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has urged the union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman to allocate a minimum of three per cent of the GDP in the budget to health care so that India would become world no. 1 number one in providing quality health care to the citizens. In […]

Visakhapatnam: The Praja Arogya Vedika affiliated to Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has urged the union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman to allocate a minimum of three per cent of the GDP in the budget to health care so that India would become world no. 1 number one in providing quality health care to the citizens. In a letter addressed to her here on Sunday, Dr. M.V. Ramanaiah and T. Kameswara Rao, president and general secretary respectively of the Vedika, noted that in the recent times every household was forced to spend high amounts on health and it is high time the government took the necessary steps to support citizens and provide medical assistance.

“The majority of the people are either middle class or below poverty line and their earnings are not sufficient even to spend on essentials like food, clothing, accommodation etc,. Spending on health is beyond their reach. At present the Government expenditure on health care is limited to 0.34% of GDP and our nation is placed at 145th position out of 180 countries in providing quality health care. The government should be people-friendly and take all possible steps to increase the health standards by increasing budget allocations for health care to the extent of 3% of GDP which can relieve maximum pressure on citizens in the middle class and below poverty line. Among other things, the duo suggested strengthening of primary and secondary health care centers by developing infrastructure with equipment, lab facilities and full-fledged staff including doctors, spread of National health care centers like AIIMS throughout the Nation to facilitate the advantage of super specialty services even to the common citizen, steps to increase R&D by promoting institutions like CCMB, ICMR, CSIR etc and establish them throughout India by attaching these institutions with PG teaching hospitals and they must work industry friendly to invent more useful and affordable medical facilities to the citizens of India.

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“In the backdrop of COVID-19, the cost of almost all the essential and life-saving medicines has risen to abnormal heights. In this present scenario the government must rethink and bring back institutions / industries like IDPL, HAL, RICTL, BPL etc. into functioning to produce affordable medicine to the common citizens. We also request you to use your good office to re-open all the government vaccine producing plants for producing the vaccine at affordable price and implement National Immunization programmes without burdening the people of India,” they said.

The Vedika leaders also recalled that today 70% of health care is in the private sector and taking advantage of the situation, the private health care institutions were exploiting the common man by increased expenditure on health care. It was high time the Government brought legislation to put an end to the looting of citizens by the private players in the health industry, they stated.

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