Right to get expenses of critical and costly medical treatment from government
kamlesh
(Querist) 11 July 2013
This query is : Resolved
Hi Experts,
I become very frustrated to hear news from TV, Newspaper, even from relatives that a)patient could not manage to do treatment in hospital due to poverty b)Hospital refused to give delivery of new born infant unless paying whole bill c) So and so amount is required for critical medical treatment and Hospital has refused to operate patient unless depositing the amount of medical expenses. d) new born infant has some disorders and Parents are unable to give treatment due to high medical expenses and many more.
As per my knowledge there are few charitable trusts who raise funds for medical expenses to some extent. But we have right to life under Article 21 which is fundamental right guaranteed under Constitution. In many foreign countries medical treatment expenses are given by Government through medical fund, Mandatory Insurance Policy free of cost etc. Insurance Companies are also shrewd, they do not give coverage for disorders of infant in respect of error in metabolism.
My question is for Constitutional experts that, Will Supreme Court declare Right to have free medical treatment falls within the ambit of "Right to Life" and direct to government to keep funds ready for Citizens of India. We have many rights through Art. 21 such as Right to have healthy environment, hygienic water, sleep, education, in short live with human dignity, then why not get free medical treatment including critical treatment free of cost? otherwise what is use of all these amenities without healthy body?
Guest
(Expert) 12 July 2013
Since you belong to the legal community, you can file a PIL in the SC. But mere presumption about the present status is not correct. Before that, you may have to check with the prescribed conditions, including percentage of free admissions, after observing which the approval is granted for opening of individual private hospitals.
You may also have to collect instances of refusal of free treatment by private hospitals.
Government is responsible only for opening of Government dispensaries and hospitals for free treatment to the citizens of India. The dispensaries and hospitals of are existing in every part of the country. So far as my knowledge goes, Government hospitals do not insist for deposit of any advance by patients.
But, if someone prefers to go directly to private clinics without knocking the door of Government hospitals and got referred by such hospitals to some specility hospitals, they can't have any right to claim for free treatments in any case. Normal tendency is that several people fdon't go to Government hospitals just with the presupposition that they won't get proper treatment from Government hospitals, which is not correct always. In today's scenario, leave aside the affluent class, almost every middle class family tries to seek speciality treatment even for the common diseases.
Better make a thorogh research before filing any PIL.
