New Delhi: Underlining the need for universal health care, a group of experts today sought a National Health Act to ensure equitable distribution of medical facilities across the population.
"The National Health Act should be on the lines of the Right to Education Act and in fact should have been brought about earlier as health was more important than education," opined senior AIIMS cardiologist Dr Srinath Reddy.
Arguing that finances have never been a problem for the government, he said, as compared to the subsidies being doled out for industries and the petroleum sector, the sectors of health and nutrition have got nothing from the budget.
"Even the PDS system has virtually collapsed as the government was not sure who fall within and above the poverty line," Biraj Patnaik from the office of the commissioners to the Supreme Court, said during a discussion on the draft National Health Bill here.
He favoured a food distribution system which does not discriminate between the tribal, SC/ST and other poor people and focusses on universal nutrition.
"We should not think about budgeting in the social sector. We can see that the resources are enough," he added.
N J Kurien, a former member of the Planning Commission, said, that public expenditure on health is just one per cent and 70 per cent of the medical care is given by unqualified medical practitioners.
Reference From Zee News
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