The Freedom To Access Health Care

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the deep social and economic divisions that make access to affordable and quality health care a distant reality

- Ajoy Khandheria

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”- Toni Morrison

On this 72nd anniversary of India’s victory in its struggle for freedom, we are in the midst of another struggle, and one that has confined us to our homes. The global pandemic has put more than half of the world’s population under lockdowns and an extremely modified way of life. In this situation, a question arises: How liberated is India’s health care system?

Our methods in this battle against Covid-19, via lockdowns and physical distancing, have been accompanied by a social and economic cost. With 81 percent of the working population involved in the informal economy, the pandemic has also resulted in a massive reverse migration from urban to rural areas. This inward migration has created a severe burden on existing health systems in rural areas, as the majority of outpatient departments (OPDs) in primary health centres have been inoperative since the commencement of the lockdowns.

Lack of access, which has been one of the core problems of the Indian health care system, now came with the inability to travel to district or private hospitals. The wider mortality of Covid-19 has gone beyond the pandemic itself. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patients with pre-existing non-communicable disease (NCD) conditions such as hypertension and diabetes become more vulnerable, and have an increased risk of mortality not only because they are more susceptible to the virus but also due to the limited medical resources that now have to be directed towards treatment of patients with Covid-19.