Moving forward with a newer concept of Universal Health Care

Context:

• Halfdan Mahler proposed the slogan “Health for All” by 2000 which means universalization of health.
• Thus, nobody is denied good health and everybody is eligible without being discriminated against on the basis of financial status, gender, race, place of residence, and affordability to pay or any other factors.

Issues:

• Issues with Primary Health: Alma Ata, 1978, listed eight components of minimum care for all citizens. Any non-communicable disease, chronic disease including mental illnesses, and its investigations and treatment were almost excluded from primary health care.
• Abdication of responsibility: When it came to secondary and tertiary care, it was left to the individual to either seek it from a limited number of public hospitals or from the private sector by paying from their own pockets.
• Unregulated Private Sector: Private sector is largely unregulated which makes the health sector expensive for the poor persons.