Member of the House of Representatives (HoR) Dr Dila Sangraula has asked the government to make its stance public on the health insurance scheme.
Taking part in the Appropriation Bill in the Sunday meeting of HoR, lawmaker Sangraula said there are almost 20 private health insurance companies in the country, but they are just eying for profits and escaping responsibility to bear the risk of poor people in case the latter is not able to pay the premium amount. “We don’t have to introduce the model that advocates the idea of loss bearing from the state and profit from the private companies.”
She argued that almost 50 percent of the total health care expenditure of Nepalese is spent on an individual basis. “Thousands of households are pushed to poverty every year in the country for failing to bear the exorbitant health care cost. Health care cost in the private hospital is not in the access of general public and most of the government hospitals lack reliable and quality health care services,” she shared her views in the parliament.
Against this backdrop, lawmaker Sangraula took time to seek the government plans to supply skilled human resources, equipment and drugs in the to-be-built 655 basic hospitals that are being completed by the next fiscal year.
She has also termed the government announcement to provide Rs 5,000 in cash as nutrition costs to the new mothers in 25 districts that have poor Human Development Index (HDI) as a welcome step.
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