A prominent association of doctors in West Bengal has written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, asking her to revoke a recent order that makes it mandatory for patients to use the Swasthya Sathi card while seeking treatment in government-run hospitals.
Swasthya Sathi is the Trinamool Congress Government’s insurance scheme providing a cover of ₹5 lakh a year per family. According to the Joint Platform of Doctors, treatment at government hospitals was always free and using the insurance card there would not only lead to decrement of the sum assured but would also fatten the wallets of insurance companies. The premium paid to the insurance companies, the body pointed out, was nothing but the taxpayers’ money.
“When the scheme was launched, [it was not meant as a tool] to raise funds for government hospitals from the insurance companies, who in turn are fed by the Government’s own exchequer through the annual premium. Had it been operationalised by the Government’s own machinery to settle cashless claims in private hospitals (when downtrodden people get themselves admitted anyway in compelling situations) without accommodating any insurance agency and continue to deliver free services at government hospitals as before, then a sizable amount of money could be saved, which could well be utilised to expand the health infrastructure,” the platform wrote in a letter to Ms. Banerjee earlier this week.
According to Dr. Koushik Chaki, a senior member of the platform and of the West Bengal Doctors’ Forum, the November 25 order put the “whole concept of welfare state, at least the matter of public health, and the right to free and quality healthcare” to question. “The card should not be used in government hospitals. And in private hospitals the rates should be rationale. A private practitioner’s remuneration can’t be dictated by the Government or courts of law or any quasi-judicial body. It violates his/her fundamental rights,” Dr. Chaki told The Hindu.
He also pointed — and so did the platform’s letter to the Chief Minister — to the non-availability of several drugs in the market. “Medicines for chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension, and many drugs for chemotherapy are either out of stock or in short supply.
Medicines account for 60% of medical expenses. The not-so-privileged people, the vast majority, are being forced below the poverty line due to this huge expense. None of the schemes like Swasthya Sathi or Ayushman Bharat addresses this problem,” Dr. Chaki said.
