Affordable health insurance is a basic right, the Supreme Court said on Friday, in an important observation that also kept the State responsible for securing the right and acknowledged that the battle against COVID-19 was a “world war”
“Right to health is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Right to Health includes affordable treatment. Therefore, it is the duty upon the State to make provisions for affordable treatment,” the court said.
Judges Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah took up the issue of health care on their own during the time of the pandemic and even looked at instances where coronavirus patients were not treated with dignity.
“Due to unprecedented pandemic, everybody in the world is suffering, one way or the other. It is a world war against COVID-19. Therefore, there shall be Government Public Partnership to avoid world war against COVID-19,” the judges said.
“Either more and more provisions are to be made by the state government and the local administration or there shall be cap on the fees charged by the private hospitals which can be in exercise of the powers under the Disaster Management Act,” they added. T
The court called for increased coronavirus testing and emphasised the need to provide accurate data. “One must be transparent in number of testing and declaring the facts and figures of the persons who are Corona positive. Otherwise the people will be misled and they will be under impression that everything is all right and they will become negligent,” the judges said.
They also asked the government to step up fire safety measures in hospitals, issue guidelines for the relief of doctors engaged in Covid service, and ensure that political meetings follow the rules of Covid.