Dear Citizens,
You are probably not aware that your government has failed in its
duty to take care of your health and actively driving you away from
the public hospitals to the private hospitals.
You are probably not aware that our government manages about 14
lakh beds, one of the largest number of beds in Asia owned by a
single entity and Indian private sector has less than 7 lakh beds.
Government is pushing 70% of the secondary and over 90% of
tertiary care of the country to the private sector through various
poorly planned health schemes. Private hospitals simply do not
have capacity and the capability to manage over 80% of the
advanced healthcare needs of 1.2 billion population.
You must know that private hospitals cannot offer more than 20%
of their beds at concessional rate for the poor since most private
hospitals are built as a company acquiring land at market rate,
borrowing money at more than 10% interest rate like any other
companies, paying salaries and taxes like any other Indian
companies. In fact private hospitals pay taxes and charges much
higher than other industries, as in the case of electricity for E.g.
Industries pay Rs.5 per unit whereas hospitals pay Rs.8 per unit.
Every private hospital, big and small, pays over Rs. 500 per day per bed to the government for the electricity supply. In general, when
you pay Rs. 100 at a cash counter of any private hospital, about Rs.
25 goes back to the government as tax under various categories. In
nutshell, the sicker you are, the better it is for the government’s tax
collection.
You must know that GST will increase the treatment charges by at
least 3.6%
You must know that today because of Karnataka Government’s
poorly planned health scheme like SAST rich are getting free
surgeries in private hospitals since they can get the BPL card easily
and the genuinely poor don’t know how to get it. This is in spite of
Karnataka government declaring that it has more BPL cards than
the population. In the process, private hospitals are no longer in a
position to help the poor since their 20% charity component is used
up in treating the rich, influential patients carrying BPL cards.
All of you applauded the government for capping the price of stents.
Before capping, private hospitals charged a premium on the stent
and when a poor man turned up at night with heart attack,
implanted a stent at less than cost price without advertising about
it. We can guarantee that very few private hospitals in India drove
away a patient because of the high cost. They could do it because
rich paid the premium to subsidize the treatment of poor. Today
after the capping of stent price, rich pay less and poor pay more because hospitals have lost the capacity to subsidize the poor. Is it
what the government wanted?
The reason why today private hospitals are in financial mess is
because ten years ago there was only Yeshaswini Micro Health
Insurance Scheme which occupied less than 20 % of their beds.
Today SAST, ESI and other Govt schemes occupy most of the beds.
Recent study sponsored by the Government of Karnataka and
conducted by the prestigious IIM, Bangalore showed that the
government is paying a fraction of what it costs to do the surgery
safely.
Sadly even this measly amount is paid after few months to few
years after the surgery. So most private hospitals are in financial
distress. In the process, you must know that most of the private
hospitals in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where over 60% of the
population live will close down. You must know that most of the
specialists post are vacant at government hospitals which means
that staff are not available to even perform simple life saving
procedures called “Bellwether procedures”, emergency cesarean
section, laparotomy for a burst appendix and surgical treatment of
compound fractures. Today even for basic procedures poor people
are pushed to the private hospitals and sell the assets to pay the
medical bills. Private hospitals simply cannot offer treatment at
less than what it costs since they do not get any incentive from the
government.
You are probably not aware that your government has failed in its
duty to take care of your health and actively driving you away from
the public hospitals to the private hospitals.
You are probably not aware that our government manages about 14
lakh beds, one of the largest number of beds in Asia owned by a
single entity and Indian private sector has less than 7 lakh beds.
Government is pushing 70% of the secondary and over 90% of
tertiary care of the country to the private sector through various
poorly planned health schemes. Private hospitals simply do not
have capacity and the capability to manage over 80% of the
advanced healthcare needs of 1.2 billion population.
You must know that private hospitals cannot offer more than 20%
of their beds at concessional rate for the poor since most private
hospitals are built as a company acquiring land at market rate,
borrowing money at more than 10% interest rate like any other
companies, paying salaries and taxes like any other Indian
companies. In fact private hospitals pay taxes and charges much
higher than other industries, as in the case of electricity for E.g.
Industries pay Rs.5 per unit whereas hospitals pay Rs.8 per unit.
Every private hospital, big and small, pays over Rs. 500 per day per bed to the government for the electricity supply. In general, when
you pay Rs. 100 at a cash counter of any private hospital, about Rs.
25 goes back to the government as tax under various categories. In
nutshell, the sicker you are, the better it is for the government’s tax
collection.
You must know that GST will increase the treatment charges by at
least 3.6%
You must know that today because of Karnataka Government’s
poorly planned health scheme like SAST rich are getting free
surgeries in private hospitals since they can get the BPL card easily
and the genuinely poor don’t know how to get it. This is in spite of
Karnataka government declaring that it has more BPL cards than
the population. In the process, private hospitals are no longer in a
position to help the poor since their 20% charity component is used
up in treating the rich, influential patients carrying BPL cards.
All of you applauded the government for capping the price of stents.
Before capping, private hospitals charged a premium on the stent
and when a poor man turned up at night with heart attack,
implanted a stent at less than cost price without advertising about
it. We can guarantee that very few private hospitals in India drove
away a patient because of the high cost. They could do it because
rich paid the premium to subsidize the treatment of poor. Today
after the capping of stent price, rich pay less and poor pay more because hospitals have lost the capacity to subsidize the poor. Is it
what the government wanted?
The reason why today private hospitals are in financial mess is
because ten years ago there was only Yeshaswini Micro Health
Insurance Scheme which occupied less than 20 % of their beds.
Today SAST, ESI and other Govt schemes occupy most of the beds.
Recent study sponsored by the Government of Karnataka and
conducted by the prestigious IIM, Bangalore showed that the
government is paying a fraction of what it costs to do the surgery
safely.
Sadly even this measly amount is paid after few months to few
years after the surgery. So most private hospitals are in financial
distress. In the process, you must know that most of the private
hospitals in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where over 60% of the
population live will close down. You must know that most of the
specialists post are vacant at government hospitals which means
that staff are not available to even perform simple life saving
procedures called “Bellwether procedures”, emergency cesarean
section, laparotomy for a burst appendix and surgical treatment of
compound fractures. Today even for basic procedures poor people
are pushed to the private hospitals and sell the assets to pay the
medical bills. Private hospitals simply cannot offer treatment at
less than what it costs since they do not get any incentive from the
government.
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