People want govt. to cap price of COVID-19 vaccine at private hospitals

They also did not want institutions to levy registration charges for the shots

An online survey has found that people want the government to mandate companies to declare the maximum retail prices of the COVID-19 vaccines. The respondents also wanted a cap on the pricing of vaccines in private hospitals. They did not want the hospitals to levy registration charges for vaccination. The survey, in which over 35,000 persons participated from across 304 districts in the country, found that 23% of people, who took the COVID-19 vaccine in the private sector, had paid anywhere between ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 per dose. About 3% of respondents said they had paid over ₹2,000 per dose. The question on how much a person paid for the vaccine at a private healthcare facility received 8,385 responses. While 20% respondents said they paid ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 per dose of Covaxin, 11% said they paid ₹500 to ₹1,000. Sixty percent respondents had paid ₹250 to ₹500 per dose. As much as 73% of the 9,021 persons, who responded to a question on whether State governments should cap per dose service charge at private hospitals, were in favour of it. While in hospitals it could be capped at ₹100 to ₹200, off-site locations such as community centres, societies, colonies, offices and clubs could have a cap of ₹200 to ₹400, they said.