REFLECTION OF THE RIGHT TO HEALTH BILL

OVER THE INDIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

The Right to Health is coupled with the right to life and the right to live with dignity. The study is all about the effects, effectiveness, implications, pros, and cons of implementing the Right to Health Bill passed by the Rajasthan government. Though people think that implementing the Right to Heath Bill would be beneficial, looking at a broader view the Right to Heath Bill can be interpreted and the provisions can be made more specific. Voices of the Doctors and the Private Healthcare Institutions must also be heard as it affects the basic right to the profession. Analyzing the information received from both the students of law and the secondary sources like Articles, research papers, and blogs. It was concluded as a descriptive answer that the implementation of the Right to Health Bill is possible corresponding with positivity only when the provisions in the Right to Heath Bill are revised by the government making sure that the Doctors and the Private Healthcare Institutions are not affected by the Act.

Keywords

Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, Implementation, Welfare, Healthcare, Indian Constitution and Doctors.

Introduction

Right to Health:

The Right to Health is the basic fundamental right mentioned under Article 21 of The Constitution of India, 1949. The Article lays down the Protection of life and personal liberty of every citizen of India. The Right to Health is implicitly present in the Right to life assured by the Supreme power of India.

The World Health Organization considers the Right to Health as a basic right of every person where health can be achieved in the highest attainable form. Thus, it aims to provide the Right to Health to all people without any distinction between them on either ground.

Also, the Right to Health plays an important role in forming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 25 clearly states that every person has a right to a living standard that provides a basic necessity of satisfaction to live a healthy lifestyle for the person and their family.

The main core elements of the Right to Health care

Availability of an adequate healthcare system and infrastructure for better treatment. The State must ensure the availability of services, materials, products, and other kinds of equipment.
Accessibility of the treatment should be easier. People should be able to afford the healthcare system at a lesser cost and the expenses occurred for the treatment should not be more expensive. The accessibility corresponds with the physical as well as informational aspects. Both the physical treatment and information regarding the treatment should be made accessible to the people.
Providing healthcare service at a low cost should not reduce the quality of the service provided. The quality should be maintained and the quality should be improved for both the patients and Doctors as well.
Acceptability of the cultural aspects of the medical field by the Medical professionals following their professional ethics properly and respecting the ethics and culture of the profession. And mainly considering the welfare of the patient the Doctors and the medical practitioners should accept the changes made.

Right to Health Bill:

The Rajasthan assembly on September 22, 2022, proposed a Right to Heath Bill named The Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, 2022. The main aim of the Right to Heath Bill is to provide the Right to Health to the people without any discrimination and to seek solutions for people who suffer due to the lack of enough healthcare services. But the welcome for the Right to Heath Bill was not that expected. There were protests, rallies, and strikes all over the medical community.

The Doctors and the medical community were protesting against the implementation of the Right to Health Bill. The main aim of the Right to Heath Bill is to provide the right to emergency treatment care without any prepayment by the patient and that particular expenses will be reimbursed by the government. The biggest doubt among the public was whether the Medical sector needed legislation for the emergency section or not.

The key Rights of the residents of Rajasthan are:

Right to get emergency treatment at all health care providers without any delay and waiting period for the payment of fees or any police clearance.
Right to avail free outdoor and indoor patient department services in public institutions.
Right to be informed about the illness caused, treatments involved, and results.
Right to maintain the information of the patient private and confidential.
Right to access safe and quality health care with grievance redressal.
Free treatment for accidents on the road and transport-related illnesses.

The key Liabilities of the State in implementing the Right to Health:

Duty to formulate, create and prescribe a standard public health model.
Duty to ensure proper health care facilities are provided and treated.
Duty to take care of the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by private institutions.
Duty to allocate budget for reimbursing the expenses.
Duty to lay down proper quality of health care service.
To measure and protect public health emergencies.

Current Situation of the Right to Health in India:

If the Rajasthan State government succeeds in implementing the Right to Heath Bill, it is the first and foremost state to implement the Right to Health via an act. The State must promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting the social order and justice as effectively as possible which is the freedom to form any institutions to maintain it. This also includes the formation of healthcare institutions to protect and maintain the Right to Health of every citizen.

As the citizens of India, people are supporting the implementation of the Right to Heath Bill as it is useful for middle and lower-class people. The government also aims to implement the Right to Heath Bill for the benefit of its people. The only controversy is raised by Doctors and Private Healthcare Institutions.

Why do Doctors and private healthcare providers oppose it?

The Doctors and the private health care providers challenge the practicality of the law. The law doesn’t ensure the welfare of the Doctors and imposes more burdens on private institutions. Due to the word “any clinical establishment,” the Doctors are tense about whether they have to provide all their services free of cost. Even the Doctors are ready to migrate to other states when the Right to Heath Bill is implemented. They fear the lively wood of the Doctors and the medical community will be affected massively.

In the beginning, the Doctors interpreted the provision which could destroy the sustainability of the private health care services. But later on, the Rajasthan government gave clarity on the word which only includes the public health care services. The private institutions and Doctors mainly indicated the lack of infrastructure as an important factor that is challenging the implementation of the Right to Heath Bill. The population of the country influences the density of treatment done.

Challenges in implementing the Right to Health Bill:

Despite the efforts made by the government for the improvement of the healthcare services infrastructure, the beds available for the people are far less than expected.
As the population is high, highly contagious and communicable diseases face significant suffering even out of better treatment.
gender differences in diseases are a major problem in India.
The government spends less than the average financing on health care services.

Right to Health in other countries:

As per WHO most countries have the Right to Health as a basic fundamental right. This means people should get basic treatment of healthcare without any discrimination and compromise in quality and safety. Every individual has the right to privacy and the right to be treated with dignity and to live with respect.

Thus, these rights are coupled with the Right to Health. Most countries are striving to eliminate discrimination in the field of healthcare by way of the Right to Health. As a result, every country entered into an international treaty with other countries for the effective recognition of the Right to Health.

Research Methodology

The research conducted is based on Primary as well as Secondary sources of data. The Primary data is obtained to collect information regarding the present issue prevailing among the people regarding the implementation of the Right to Heath Bill. The Secondary data which had been already obtained by another researcher helps to analyze the validity of the primary data collected. The research carried out by someone else is based on the information examined and interpreted by him.

The research design doesn’t aim to collect any quantitative data and analyze it. The study is based on the qualitative research data and the procedure established in this study also aims to collect only the qualitative data from the sources.

For collecting the Primary data, a Questionnaire is formulated. The questionnaire is circulated only to a selective number of law students who have a clear understanding of the Right to Health Bill passed in Rajasthan. This Questionnaire tends to know the opinion and commentaries of the people on the merits and demerits of the Right to Health Bill.

The questionnaire contains these questions:

Whether your aware of the Right to Health Bill passed by the Rajasthan government?
Are you aware of the Pros and Cons of implementing the Right to Heath Bill?
Do you think that the Right to Heath Bill may be beneficial to the citizens?
What is your opinion on the voice raised by the Doctors and Private Healthcare Institutions?
As the general public keeping the welfare of the public, would you implement the Right to Heath Bill or not?
How do you see the future after the implementation of the Right to Heath Bill?

For collecting the Secondary data, legally recognized and certified websites, articles, blogs, and content related to the Right to Heath Bill are referred to. News, mass media, and social media also played an important role in providing secondary data.

The conclusion is made by comparing both the primary and secondary data, which shall answer the question that whether the reflection of the Right to Heath Bill is on the positive side or negative side.

Research Design

This research is done to know the pros and cons of the Right to Heath Bill passed by the State of Rajasthan. The methodology used in this research is widely spread and the research design is based on the investigation of the research question, to analyze it and not to provide any conclusion on the research question raised.
Thus, the research follows an Exploratory Research method as a Research Design. In this research design, there is no hypothesis involved and the absence of a definitive conclusion for the research question helps increase the understanding by widening the scope of the study rather than narrowing it down to a single statement.
This research follows a grounded theory approach due to its open-ended nature and the flexibility of the conclusion made. The descriptive nature of the research analyses the outline of the issues and focuses more on defining the problem than the effects of the problem. Mostly a descriptive research method uses the primary method for the study.

Review of Literature

The Right to Heath Bill was a heated topic in recent times. Thus, there is no adequate information, research paper, or articles published related to the topic. A Research paper published by the PRS Legislative Research (“PRS”) entirely discusses the implications, obligations, key issues, and key features of the Right to Heath Bill.

According to the author, the Right to Heath Bill aims to provide quality and safe health and well-being for the people. The key features highlighted by the author are the benefits of the Right to Heath Bill, the rights assured through the Right to Heath Bill, the obligations of the State government for protecting the rights, and lastly the duties of the health authorities in providing transparent treatment and maintaining the privacy of the patients.

The author contends that the obligation laid down on the private sector may violate their rights to carry out their business smoothly. The word institution also includes Private Healthcare Institutions as well. But the Right to Heath Bill doesn’t specify any details or procedures about how the reimbursement for the expenses will be collected from the government. This makes the Right to Heath Bill one-sided supporting only the people of the State rather than considering the problems involved on the other side.

This also violates Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India, which guarantees the right to practice any profession or carry on any occupation, trade, or business. In the case of Social Jurists, A Lawyers Group v. Government of NCT of Delhi [1], the Delhi High Court said that the State’s obligation to provide better healthcare services is also equally imposed on the private sector, but that necessarily should not be the case.

The Right to Heath Bill also ensures an establishment of a web portal and a helpline center for the grievance redressal mechanism. Receiving a complaint from the patient, the patient should upload his medical reports to the complaint. The District Health Authority should answer the complaint within 24 hrs. Here the Right to Privacy of the patient is not ensured as the reports can be seen by others who can access them other than the District Health Authority. Thus, making it vulnerable information.

The author also touches on the implications if the Right to Heath Bill is implemented. The lack of infrastructure, shortage of labour and medical practitioners, less capital flow, absence of proper procedure, and the demerits affecting the economy of the Private Health care institutions.

Analysis

The Data collected from the Questionnaires are analyzed and a descriptive conclusion has been drawn. General information about the research was explained to the respondents of the questionnaire. The research population features are as follows:

The respondents are law students.
The respondents know the Right to Heath Bill.
The respondents are very well aware of the duties they vest as Indian citizens.
The respondents are not insane, lunatic, or unsound mind.
The respondents have adequate knowledge of the laws related to the right to health.
The respondents are selected based on their interest in current affairs and social events.
The responses given by them are reliable and the opinions are from their perspective.

Thus, considering the responses from the above population the answers are analyzed. There was a total of 7 responses received.

The first question is whether the respondent is aware of the Right to Health Bill passed by the Rajasthan government or not. This question helps to know the percentage of people who are aware of the Right to Heath Bill passed by the Rajasthan government. As the population selected was based on their awareness of current affairs 5 out of 7 answered that they knew about the Right to Heath Bill. This shows that the majority of the population is aware of the Right to Heath Bill.

The second question is that is the respondents are aware of the pros and cons of implementing the Right to Heath Bill. Out of 7, only one respondent answered that he/she is not aware of the pros and cons of the Right to Heath Bill. Thus, to make the research more reliable and effective the respondents who are not aware of the pros and cons of it were explained about the effects of the Right to Heath Bill.

The third question is whether the respondents think that the implementation of the Right to Heath Bill may be beneficial or not. All the respondents believe that the Right to Heath Bill may benefit the general public. One of the respondents said

“Always an implementation of the new law is prone to challenges which will be beneficial to a category of people and not to others. But the greater good paves the way for the categorization of beneficial or not. From my perspective, if this Right to Heath Bill is implemented with proper infrastructure, gender equality, and other requirements it will be beneficial to the citizens.”

The answer clearly shows that the implementation though having so many negative faces, the Right to Heath Bill benefits the majority of the population, then the implementation of it is a wise move. Though the Right to Heath Bill has its own challenges on one side, implementing will benefit mostly the lower and middle class, not the people who belong to the upper class, Doctors, and private institutions.

The fourth question was to obtain the opinion of the respondents regarding the voices raised by the Doctors and the Private Healthcare Institutions. The respondent contended that the government would tend to work for the welfare of the people so, the personal opinion of the corporate doesn’t constitute any value. They also suggested improving the infrastructure. But considering the right to profession their voices should also be heard.

The fifth and sixth question aims to know their action if they were the authority to implement the Right to Heath Bill. Considering the social welfare of the public implementing would be idealistic and will be an eye opener to the people who suffer sickness due to lack of finance.

Suggestions

Doctors and Private Healthcare Institutions mainly concentrate on Rich people and their target is to earn profit rather than to provide service. Even though they provide the best facilities and health services, the cost of their services is not considerable. Therefore, their voice on their Right to the profession can be heard but not at the cost of the social welfare concept. They must face fair competition.
The future with the said rectification of Cons will lead to the equivalent health service-providing countries in the world. The Right to Heath Bill would benefit a large number of people and the future of Rajasthan healthcare would be improved by slow and steady progress which would be great for the coming generation.
Even though the Right to Heath Bill seems to be too idealistic to achieve. I would implement the Right to Heath Bill for public welfare. People from different economic backgrounds can benefit from free and quality healthcare.
The people are entitled to the right to health, and it creates a compulsion for the government to take steps toward this. The State has to ensure the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.
The Rajasthan government should specify and define the procedure for the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by Doctors and Private Healthcare Institutions.
If the Right to Heath Bill is passed then it should be implemented accordingly. Government should take all the possible and necessary measures for the appropriate functioning of the right ensured in the Right to Heath Bill.

Conclusion

The process of making a law is a rigid and tough one at the same time flexible to adapt to the current situations prevailing. To create a designated and autonomous agency to perform the function of disease surveillance properly and effectively. Gathering information on health impacts the policies of key non-health departments. India must address the barriers that prevent individuals from accessing healthcare services, including financial constraints, transportation, and discrimination in gender and class. Significantly India needs to increase its investments in healthcare infrastructure and resources, including medical facilities, equipment, and healthcare professionals. This can be achieved through increased public spending on healthcare and increased private sector investment.

References

Name: Suriya Badrinath S

College: Government Law College, Vellore.

[1] Social Jurists, A Lawyers Group v. Government of NCT of Delhi, Delhi High Court, 140 (2007 DLT 698, 2007.