Need of affordable health care for the poor

Need of affordable health care for the poor

By: Mahmudul Hasan Laskar 

University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya

Healthcare is inevitable need of the human being not a luxury to be aspiring for. In present India, capitalistic mode of health care facilities and disproportionate state run health facilities are responsible for wide gap in availing complete health facilities. The un-proportionate primary health facilities without considering the capability of the poor for treatment of some serious diseases, which need surgery and other treatments of high cost is ultimately making poor starving for dignity of human life. There are two dimensional way of making health care affordable to the poor____

On the one hand, health care can be ensured through enhancement of income, health insurance

Unless and until people’s income is not increasing, it would be difficult for them to afford expensive treatments for certain serious diseases. Here, non-government organizations and CSR fund of all big and medium industries can be the best means of minimizing health care burden of the poor sections of Indian population. Government alone cannot provide free health care facilities to such a large population. Thus, private partners have to come forward to ensure inclusive health facilities. It has been observed that clear and visible division exists in availing health facilities due to wide income gap in India. Rich and wealthy sections prefer to visit private hospitals and can avail all facilities very easily; on the other hand less affluent or poor sections struggles to get such facilities. Government hospitals are less in numbers and are over populated, so private hospitals has to offer inclusive platforms to avail health facilities.

Most important things are the urgent need of reducing hunger and ill health; food security and proper nutrition are essential in this regard. Hunger and poor nutrition are the serious problems that causes deteriorated health condition. Unhygienic condition of living pattern in slum areas is another major source of poor health of the certain sections of population in India.

Industrialists may come up with affordable housing colony for the less affluent people and can also set up proper infrastructure for health and hygiene. Health care facilities must not be capitalized in a country like India. Health care facilities should not be the luxury of few rather must be affordable amenity for all sections of population. Income of the poor has to be increased to live with all essential amenities of life.

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Author of the article is Mahmudul Hasan Laskar, Assistant Professor in the department of Sociology, University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya

For all correspondence write to Mahmudul Hasan Laskar <hasanlaskaramu@gmail.com>