Healthcare will remain in public domain: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today welcomed the growth of private sector healthcare in the country but asserted that provision of health services for the underprivileged will continue to remain in public domain for many more decades.

"There are new issues arising out of the growth of private healthcare, the increasing demand for advanced medical care and the government's own obligations in primary healthcare," he said at the golden jubilee celebrations of All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.

"Private care can not be the immediate answer to the needs of those who do not have basic purchasing power," he said adding expansion of private healthcare, which is a "happy phenomenon," would address the needs of the affluent and those covered by organised medical care programmes.

"I strongly believe that the bulk of the provision of basic health services and medical care, particularly for the poorer sections of society will continue to be in the public domain for many many decades," he said. "...millions of people living below the poverty line and in our rural areas will continue to depend on government as the primary healthcare provider," he said.

Thus, a balance needs to be struck between government and private initiative in this context, he said.

Stressing that government recognises health as an "inalienable human right", he said so long as wide inequality exists in the country and access to essential healthcare is not universally assured, "we would be falling short in both our economic planning and in our moral obligation to all citizens."