Shri Nitin Gadkari

President

Bharatiya Janata Party

 Dear Nitin ji,

 Namaskaar. Trust this finds you doing good.

 I am deeply pained by the latest slap by the congress government on the common man’s face . This government has not taxed the corporate world in this budget – on the contrary , there have been some reductions !! But the poor man has been taxed – “Now Treatment would be worse than disease”, as I call it

 This appeal is regarding the tax that the government has recently levied on the poor man’s pocket . If he earlier spent Rs.100 on healthcare , now he will be forced to spend between Rs.105 & 110 . Last week only , I returned from my visit to rural Varanasi . I also visited a CT scan centre , where people are provided CT Scan services at almost 50 % of the market rates , still , people cannot afford to pay and go back without treatment . I have a presentation that I made at the Institute of medical sciences , BHU, You can see that :

“ Any major medical intervention pushes a rural family back by 10 years and a death resulting due to such an illness pushes the family back by 30 years !! ”

• 39 Million people go below the poverty line every year due to healthcare costs
• In 2004 , 30 % of rural Indians did not go for treatment due to financial reasons, up from 15 % in 1995
• 47 % of hospital admissions in rural & 31 % in urban India was financed by loans and sale of assets
• Between 1986 and 2004,avg real expenditure per hospital admission increased 3 times

According to the Economic Survey 2009-10 

• 13 % of rural population have access to PHC
• 33 % of rural population have access to sub-center
• 9.6 % of rural population have access to hospitals
• 28.3 % of rural population have access to a dispensary or clinics
• 34 % of rural population have access to diagnostic centers (According to CCF)
• Only 24 % of rural areas have access to healthcare facilities

What a shameful act of our tax minister , Pranab Mukherjee !!  I am putting some of the slides from my  Keynote address at India health expansion Summit in 2010. I am also attaching a short version of the presentation ( and the complete one , if you have time to read it ). I am sure that healthcare needs more focus from our policy makers .

 Healthcare policy makers have to ensure that the changes are ‘Patient centric’ and  not just ‘industry centric’

Industry is organized but Patients are not , and so patients are never heard . This needs to change . Patient Care Collaborative Organization is non-existent . This is one major detriment for worthwhile changes in the Indian Healthcare

– Rajendra Pratap Gupta

“In a country where our  current PM had a triple bypass , former PM had a Joint replacement , Agriculture minister has cancer , Chairman- PSC on Health had a Kidney transplant ,Former Defense minister has Alzheimer’s  & one of our youngest M.P. has diabetes & Majority of our politician’s are senior citizens by all measures : still our finance minister decides to bring Preventive health checks under service tax !!’

-Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Biggest Challenge in healthcare is not technology, medical errors, compliance , prevention or disease management . They are all just opportunities coming out because of us failing to address the biggest challenge ; to convert ‘suffering populations’ into ‘active patients’

-Rajendra Pratap Gupta

 “ 700 million people live below 2 dollars a day , and for them getting two meals in a day is a daily priority .  Irony is that, for these people healthcare should be a necessity but it is luxury beyond thoughts”

-Rajendra Pratap Gupta

All the announcements on the taxes on pharmaceuticals and healthcare ( in any form ) must be reversed . This government is already spending meagre amount on healthcare.  People are taking loans to spend for treatment and  this rapacious government has no right to dissuade people from doing so by taxing the already expensive healthcare services.

 I expect BJP to take this up as seriously as the demand for JPC and get this taxes scrapped from the budget

 Thanks in advance for safe guarding the Common Man. This mail is marked to national leaders and media

 with best regards

 Rajendra

 Rajendra Pratap Gupta

President & Director

Disease Management Association of India  ( www.dmai.org.in )