Duggal Ravi
International Budget Partnership, People's Health Movement, India.
Indian J Med Ethics. 2011 Jan-Mar;8(1):28-30. doi: 10.20529/IJME.2011.010.
The health insurance business in India has seen a growth of over 25% per annum in the last few years with the expansion of the private health insurance sector. The premium incomes of health insurance have crossed the Rs 8,000 crore mark with the share of private companies increasing to over 41%. This is despite the fact that from the perspective of patients, health insurance is not a good deal, especially when they need it most. This raises a number of ethical issues regarding how the health insurance business runs and how medical practice adjusts to it for profiteering. This article uses the personal experience of the author to argue that health insurance in an unregulated environment can only lead to unethical practices, further victimising the patient. Further, publicly financed healthcare which operates in an environment regulating both public and private healthcare provisioning is the only way to assure access to ethical and equitable healthcare to people.
在过去几年中，随着印度私营健康保险行业的扩张，印度的健康保险业务每年增长超过25%。健康保险的保费收入已突破8000亿卢比大关，其中私营公司的份额增至41%以上。尽管从患者的角度来看，健康保险并非是一件好事，尤其是在他们最需要的时候。这引发了一些关于健康保险业务如何运作以及医疗行业如何为了获利而进行调整的伦理问题。本文利用作者的个人经历认为，在不受监管的环境下，健康保险只会导致不道德行为，进一步使患者成为受害者。此外，在对公共和私营医疗服务供应都进行监管的环境中运作的公共资助医疗保健，是确保人们获得符合伦理和公平的医疗保健的唯一途径。
