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| Whiteribbonalliance.org |
The medical council as per Daily Monitor of
January 9 proposed to set doctors' consultation fees in a bid to address the
issue of patients being detained or denied services because of inability to pay
medical bills. The medical council is getting it wrong with this preposition on
three accounts that is; this doesn't address the root cause of patients'
inability to reimburse for medical services, secondly will make the business
environment for healthcare anti-competitive and finally drive more high quality
doctors out of medical practice in Uganda.
The first question that should have been
asked is why are people unable to afford healthcare? While the answer to this
might be multi-dimensional, the simplest answer is that no one plans on being
sick and therefore no one saves up for that unanticipated event. For this
reason, most countries have developed and implemented mechanisms to ensure that
hospitals and health professionals are reimbursed for services rendered mostly
through their national health insurance systems or mandating individuals to
purchase health insurance. The medical council instead of adopting extreme
paternalistic remedies that make Uganda's private health system less
competitive should address the root cause of affordability of healthcare to
Ugandans. Continue here to read more
News credit: Allafrica
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