SDPI seminar Call to start health insurance for poor

Dr AJ Khan, former Federal Minister for Health, has asked the government to start a health insurance scheme in the country for the poor and rich and asked the employer to pay the premium.

Dr Jamil was speaking at a seminar on Federal Budget: health sector organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with the UNDP project of Strengthening Democracy Through Parliamentary Development (SDPD) at Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services here Friday. The seminar was part of Post-Budget Orientation Series for Parliamentarians. Dr Nazr-e-Hayder from SDPI conducted the proceedings.

Dr Jamil said that candidates make a lot of problems with the voters in the election campaign but after election, they forget all the promises and indulge in getting officials transferred or appointed in different departments or cities. They also submit bogus bills and get them reimbursed. He said that when he refused to endorse, they complained to the Health Minister or Prime Minister. He said some of them demand medicines for distribution to their voters. He said that a substantial chunk of hospitals budget goes to them and they demand most expensive drugs.

He said that private sector hospitals are performing better. He said that needy ones should get money from Usher and Zakat. He said that the government should say some money to private hospitals as grant as it would then have a right to control them.

He said that in Kohistan district there are only six doctors for a population of six hundred thousands. He said that a doctor working in rural areas should be given allowance of say Rs 50,000. They prefer big cities because their emoluments are relatively higher there.

Dr Khalid Bile Mohammed, Country Director, World Health Organisation, referred to Alma Ata resolution (1978) which stresses equity, social justice, universality, people-centred, community participation, inter sectoral action and self reliance. He said that graph of health sector allocation by provinces jumped in the 2010-11 budget because of NFC Award and 18th Amendment. He also discussed reduction in from child to teen age mortality in Pakistan where reasonable cut had been achieved in the past few years and hoped further improvements by 2015 under Millennium Development Goals.

Dr Sania Nishtar, President Heart File, said that value-added tax reforms could generate money that can be allocated to social sector including health though enforcing VAT is extremely difficult to achieve by an elected government. She also wondered if required amount of finances could be allocated for health and education. She said that few have complete health cover in the institutions like armed forces, Fauji Foundation and private sector. She said that 73.38 pc of Pakistanis are not covered for health. She said that people make 57.33% payments out of their pockets as government covers 33.32% and donors 5.07%.