managements have been creating as many hurdles for the government colleges in its development, more particularly PG seats. In the name of PPP, corporate have been trying to take over government hospitals, land and other resources, weaken medical colleges, and health services( diagnostic services, supply of equipment and medicines).
A. P Government is in the forefront in health sector reforms. The government wants to privatize health services at all levels and is actively advocating public-private partnership( PPP). Government has been making efforts to privatize for instance Guntur medical college and hospital, one of the oldest hospitals in A. P. The state’ s health budget does not exceed 1 % of GDP. Within allocated resources, 25 % of it is diverted towards Arogya Raksha, a community health insurance scheme as part of NTR Vaidya Seva.. From the year 2008 onwards, Aarogyasri then and Arogya Raksha now has been a sacred cow for the corporate tertiary hospitals and private nursing homes in A. P. As public health sector is already starving for resources, there should be separate allocation for these health insurance schemes in the health budget.
The state’ s patronage to the private sector is sometimes justified on the ground that it would ease out pressure on the government hospitals. In reality, the private hospitals have effectively staked their claims over government resources through reimbursement of medical bills to the government employees. This is evident the way the corporate hospitals have been siphoning off huge amounts of public resources through inflated bills for treatment, employees medical insurance claims, income tax concessions by registering themselves as trusts and research centres etc. The Indian health care system is the most privatized in the world, with 83 % of health care expenses being borne privately, mostly out of pocket, compared to 6 % in developed countries such as UK. However, there is dismal situation in rural as well as urban India when one looks at the health indicators which are among the worst in the world today. Conclusion:
The neo-liberal policies pursued by the Congress and TDP government in Andhra Pradesh has lead to corporatization of health care leading to heightened disparities between the rich and poor. The state should strengthen the public health system at primary, secondary and tertiary level by allocating more resources in the health budget and filling the vacant positions. Allocation to the health and allied sectors should be substantively increased in the government expenditure to at least 5 % of GDP. The state should withdraw all financial incentives including the reimbursement schemes to the private health sector and route it through government’ s tertiary hospitals. Public policy towards the private sector should be confined to the regulation of quality and pricing of medical care.( Endnotes)
1
Schroder Ventures group was run by Anil Thadani who started his private equity business in 1981 and had major investments in the hospitality sector. By the late 1980s he decided to invest in health care. In 1994, Dr Reddy offered 25 percent equity interest in the Indraprastha Apollo hospital in Delhi. Thadani started investing in several projects in South East Asia, the leading one among them being Parkway Holdings in Singapore. Malaysian wealth fund Khazanah was one of the early investors still invested in the hospital chain, which picked up 5.5 million shares during 2005 for $ 44.23 million from TWL Holdings, an investment fund advised by Singapore-based PE firm Symphony Capital Partners. Khazanah had started consolidating its shares in AHEL in 2011 and currently holds 10.85 per cent share. OppenheimerFunds, a subsidiary of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, has another 8.39 percent stake. Apax Partners has reportedly sold 19 per cent stake in AHEL for Rs 2,240 crore through several transactions in the open market, giving it a three-fold return over a six-year period. It started picking up stake in 2007, starting from the acquisition of 11.5 per cent shares in AHEL for $ 104 million( Rs 420 crore at that time). Later, it increased its stake In October 2013, US-based PE firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts infused around Rs 550 crore in the holding company- PCR Investments-which was expected to be used to repay the promoters’ debt
( Narasimhan, E. Business Standard; 22 January 2015) �
February- 2018 11