Tax till death ! Repeal tax on healthcare – Now Treatment would be worse than disease !!


The National Population Health Alliance

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 )

Corruption mera Karma aur Coalition mera Dharma


Dear Manmohan ji,

The common man is really frustrated with your ‘blame game’ approach in the recent press conference . When you became the PM, we had hoped that an economics Professor who had been educated in the best of institutions in India and abroad , could impress upon the people in his party and change the governance of the nation without compromise. But , by staying silent on all the unethical activities in the congress , not only you denigrated the national institutions , you lowered the stature of the Prime Minster’s post & eroded the trust of the common man .

In the press conference , you said that, ‘let’s not just focus on scams as that lowers the image of the nation’. I wish to point Dr.Singh that, not just the image but also the financial health of the nation has been affected due to your being a patron of corruption !!

You have clearly conveyed that ‘ Corruption is your Karma & Coalition is your Dharma’. While it is known that you had some good qualities like knowledge , honesty etc , but you did not exercise those qualities , so in a sense , you became a greedy professor wanting to just stick to the Chair of the PM .

I am wondering how come Pranab Mukherjee was not questioned in this scam when he is the finance minister ? Is he just responsible for collecting taxes and not about the financial loss to the nation ? He must also follow Raja in Tihar . No one is above law ! Also, If you have the guts , please question Mukesh Ambani . He is the one who routed international calls as local calls and committed a criminal offence. What has your government done ? The Telecom co’s CEO going to CBI office and having coffee & lunch does not impress the common man. We know that these visits might be a ‘eyewash’ for the common man at the behest of congress party, and the common man is made to believe that your government is acting on corruption . Do not put off the JPC demand quoting these arrests .Suresh Kalmadi is still enjoying the dollars made in CWG !! Why he is he not in Tihar ?

Dr.Singh , every one in India is talking about the black money in Swiss banks , Dr.Singh , India has more black money than all the Swiss banks combined ! Why Pranab Dada does not start taxing expenditure rather than taxing income !! Every government officer is directly or indirectly involved in bribery , every business is into tax evasion , every builder takes a portion of the cost as black money , every minister fights election on black money . Still you think that only Swiss banks have India’s black money ? Swiss banks , I believe would only have 10-15 % of the black money , rest is still in India , and may be, some money might be in middle eastern countries .

Please change your tax system. If you tax one’s income , he might not disclose it , but at the end, the money is used to purchase something , so go and tax expenditure , the government will collect more taxes , and we would be happy paying taxes on expenditure !!

Now back to my question of your moral flexibility to run the government .

Why have you tied up with DMK in a poll bound Tamilnadu ??

Why has the CBI let off Mulayam in the disproportionate assets case ?

Is this a part of Sonia’s five pronged approach to fight corruption ???

Rahul : Where is your clean up of the party going ? Are you cleaning up the honest people by such tie ups ? What about your call to go alone in polls ? While I was at 10 Janpath with you a few months ago , a first generation leader whom you inducted in your party had met up with myself , and he told me that you are just getting educated people in the party . So all new congress leaders have started enrolling in MBA !!. Finally , this call for educated leaders is leading to elite with money bags joining youth congress. You are totally disconnected from the reality on ground !! By the way , Gandhi’s are always disconnected with reality . Nothing new !!

Dr.Singh , by asking Supreme court to directly monitor the probe, you have shown that you have no interest to act on your own or you do not trust that you will do a good job in the case ! We all know why retired supreme court judges get plum posting !! So if nothing comes out of these so called ‘Blame Free investigations’ ( Which we know will happen ) , you will shed off your load saying that you had asked the top most court to direct the probe and that you are like ‘Ceaser’s Wife’ etc etc………………….. and you cannot be blamed for the culprits being acquitted !!

When you constitute the JPC , please also mandate it to come out with an action plan that can

a) Investigate the wealth creation formula of the ex Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan .

b) Bring back the black money and put the people behind the black money in Jail

c) Recover the loot of public money by people like Lalu , Maya & other leaders like Sharad Pawar etc.

d) Take action for CWG loot

e) Investigate on all massive loot cases happening in the nation

f) Frame up laws and set up a system say a CIA ( Central Corruption Investigating agency ), which can take suo moto action against any one ( Even the President of India ) , should the need arise without going through any approval , and this institution must report to the supreme body – Legislature every six months . This body should be adequately equipped with resources ( legal, financial and human resources ) to decisively act against corruption , and all top level appointments must be made by a body consisting of the P.M. , CJI , CVC & Opposition leader .

I also want you to ask CBI to investigate if Apollo Hospitals Group paid money to A.Raja. I was told by none other than the brother-in-law of A.Raja that Apollo had paid Rs.700.00 crore to Raja

I am also quite surprised that you have quoted that you will not quit the post of PM. It is the height of being shameless

Dr.Singh , history will paint you as Mohammaed-Bin-Tuglaq- A knowledgeable and wise king who caused lot of misery and pain to his people

If you do not shape up, wait for 2014, and the common man will throw the congress government and return results like Bihar

Rajendra Pratap Gupta

A Common Man

http://www.rajendragupta.wordpress.com