Health is wealth. Though the saying has become a cliche, yet none can overlook its truthfulness. But in the context of the existing healthcare system, a new expression seems to be more valid: Health for the wealthy. The relentless, unrestricted rise in the cost of healthcare has left a brute majority of people struggling to pay their medical bills. This is all the more true as most government hospitals, run by the States and the Centre, are in dire straits. They are ‘sick’ mainly because the public expenditure on healthcare is just 2.1 per cent of the GDP, one of the lowest even among the developing countries. Low fund allocation results in lack of infrastructure, staff and equipment necessary for improving healthcare facilities starting from Primary Health Care centres to super-speciality hospitals. The tragic news of deaths coming from government hospitals off and on tells the story of neglect and negligence at various levels in these healthcare facilities.

There is yet another area which is nothing less than scary. In an eye-opening report, Lown Institute, a health think tank, says hundreds of thousands of tests and procedures are unnecessary. A scholarly magazine Academic Emergency Medicine says: 85 per cent of doctors say that they are ordering unnecessary tests because the results of those tests won’t be of much help in the treatment for which they have ordered the tests. It is nothing but unethical that tests like costly MRIs are ordered for uncomplicated illness. According to a Zee News report, 55% heart surgeries, 48% uterus surgeries, 47% cancer surgeries, 48% knee replacement surgeries and 45% C-Section surgeries are not necessary to save lives. Former Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s disclosure in Lok Sabha is nothing less than jaw-dropping. He said there is cartelization among pathological laboratories in Delhi, and patients are subjected to unnecessary tests by the doctors who are guided by ‘commission’ offered by diagnostic centres.

Healthcare and treatment become unaffordable also due to high cost of medicines. Prescription of specific brands of medicines jacks up the cost several times. Reports suggest that doctors prescribe branded medicines to avail the incentives given by pharma companies who in turn make huge profits by hiking prices. The National Medical Commission had come out with an order mandating the doctors to prescribe only generic drugs or face punishment. Unfortunately, the Commission later put its own order on hold, probably under pressure from vested interests who feared the collapse of their ‘empire’. Prescription of unnecessary medicines that come under the category of “immunity boosters” too make big holes in the pockets of patients. It is reported that thousands of crores are spent on such items leaving many patients in ‘debt trap.’

It is worth pointing out some of the questions raised in a recent petition in Supreme Court: What is the real basis for doctors to prescribe certain brands of medicines? How much influence do pharma companies have on doctors? The answers to these queries would bring out the unholy nexus between doctors and pharma companies. The government should adopt a two-pronged strategy to bring solace to the patients: It should increase the expenditure on health sector to make government hospitals healthy; it should rein in private hospitals, pharma companies and labs that rake in huge profits by unethical practices.