Mains Question:
Q. In India, availing to medical treatment is putting heavy weight on its citizens. In this regard, discuss how India can achieve the goal of affordable healthcare for all and recent steps taken by the Government of India to achieve it?
- Introduction:Brief with the rising cost of treatment in the Indian medical system.
Question Mapping
- Subject: Polity and Governance (GS-II)
- Sub-topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health
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- Also provide the temporal analysis of treatment burdenfor Indian citizens due to inflation.
- Move ahead with various steps that can be taken for making the healthcare system more affordableand how it can be achieved.
- Now provide the details of recently introduced bill for healthcare welfare in India.
- Conclusion can be made through the integrated approach of Government and Private stakeholdersfor making healthcare more fundamental and achievement of SDG 3.
Context:
Considering the increase in the size of India’s population since 2011, it is crucial to expand its PDS coverage. But the Government’s resistance to act in the direction needs to be looked upon.
The exclusion problem
- The beginning: The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, coverage ratios were too low to start with, or due to the ‘freeze’ in coverage in absolute terms (around 800 million).
- No in-built mechanism for updating coverage: Between the last Census in 2011 and today, population increase has not been accounted for in determining the number of ration cards.
- Absence of any formula: In the absence of the latest census data, the government has devised no formula-policy for including more needy persons to get the benefit under the NFSA,