This was published in The Better India on June 13 2017. Here is the link, and below is an extract: “Looking at the bigger picture, it is important that India does not stop here, but that we aim for prioritizing and making, at the soonest, all healthcare services (and not just generic medicines) accessible and affordable for all… Continue reading India’s efforts to make medicines affordable for citizens
This was published in ‘The Better India’ on May 6 2017. Here is the link, and below is an excerpt. New research from Harvard Medical School in the US, where too the ‘profit motive’ gets disproportionately blamed, emphasizes what could be called system factors: limited resources, high workload, limited motivation, and limited accountability. These put… Continue reading What we can learn from hospitals which have successfully brought down their C-section rates
This was published in Huffington Post India on March 20, 2017. Here is the link, and below is an excerpt: In our country, discussions over this most crucial trade-off rarely happen in communications between persons having terminal illness and their family (or doctors). To quote Gawande, modern medicine is good at staving off death with… Continue reading Transitioning from Delayed Death to Dignified Death, and How Kerala Shows the Way
This was carried by HuffPost India on Nov 28 2016. Here is the link, and below is an excerpt. “It’s because, just like with demonetisation, the nation leaves them with no other choice. We let government hospitals crumble, and force our poor to go to those, ostensibly for the “greater benefit of the nation”. Because… Continue reading Demonetisation and Public Health: Only a Welfare-Intensive Budget 2017 Can Now Help BJP Save Face
This was published in the Times of India as an op-ed, on Oct 13 2016. Here is the link. Below is an extract: “Few phrases in the public health literature capture the kind of raw agony that ‘catastrophic health expenditure’ does. I know that well, for my family is a rickshaw-walla’s family. A fractured bone… Continue reading Modi’s Mom and a Chaiwallah’s Mom: The Case for Universal Health Coverage in India
This article, batting for peace and human improvement in the South Asian region, was published in Scroll.in on Oct 2 2016. Here is the link. Below is an excerpt: When one looks at such data, one realizes how hollow the self-congratulatory attitudes of Indian and Pakistani citizens are. It is amazing to see how a… Continue reading Ranks 143 and 149 in 188 Nations: What India and Pakistan Have Lost Through Decades-Long Military Quests
Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze are vehement advocates for universal health coverage. In their fine 2012 book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, they devote an entire chapter to ‘India’s Health Care Crisis’. One of the important topics they discuss is the proliferation of govt-sponsored insurance schemes (relying on private insurance companies) over the past… Continue reading ‘The Private Insurance Trap’ – Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze
[Before we delve in, perhaps it is important to clarify that most such debates are not about whether private and public health sectors are ‘good/bad’ or necessary/unnecessary. It is implied that both are essential. The debate is more regarding which one should be the ‘model’ or the dominant system in a community; and regarding which… Continue reading Is Private Health Care the Answer to the Health Problems of India’s Poor?
