Rising medical expenses add to financial stress of citizens
The Hindu
PHANA says costs have gone up by 30% both for patients and hospitals
Ragashree Gnanesh, whose aged mother needs regular follow-up with a specialist for her recurring health problems, has been finding it increasingly difficult to cope with medical expenses. The salary she gets as a contract employee in a private firm is not keeping pace with the rising medical costs.
“One visit to the hospital costs me not less than ₹4,500. I have to shell out ₹900 towards the consultation fee alone. Even a few basic investigations and monthly medicine are becoming difficult now,” she said.
“Although I have a small medical insurance, I cannot use it for out-patient department visits. With a substantial increase in the cost of living too, medical expenses are turning out to be a huge burden on us,” she said.
According to data from the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), health inflation in urban areas shot up from 9.12% in January, 2022, to 11.64% in March.
Although it marginally reduced to 10.81% in April, the overall combined health inflation rate has seen almost a two-fold rise compared to last year.
C.N. Manjunath, director of the State-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said the rising costs of medical expenses is actually a cascading effect of inflation in all other sectors.
“A sharp surge in fuel, transportation, power and licensing fees to be paid by hospitals is turning out to be costly for the health facilities making it inevitable for them to pass on the additional burden to patients,” he said.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.