Health:
India Greens Party shall give top priority to Health after water and food security as the party believes that the access to quality health care is a basic human right and the publicly-funded health system is the most equitable and efficient way to resource and deliver health services.
India Greens Party also believes that the human health has a direct relationship with the quality of the environment, and a healthy natural environment underpins a healthy society. Individual and population health outcomes are strongly influenced by the social, economic and environmental conditions in which people live and work.
Therefore, India Greens Party shall ensure that all people have access to the resources and opportunities essential for good health and wellbeing should be one of the most important priorities of all Indian governments.
Preventive approaches, measures to alleviate social disadvantage, and universal access to an effective health care system are necessary to address inequities in health outcomes.
India Greens Party believes that an effective health system must be based on primary health care and preventive health care measures — such as health promotion, disease prevention, risk reduction and early intervention — in order to manage chronic disease, reduce ill-health and avoidable hospital admissions.
The party strongly feels that the entirety of the health system should be focused on the needs of people, and health service users have the right to participate in the planning of the delivery of such services.
Also, the people have the right to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care. And, an effective health care system is dependent upon a skilled, well-resourced workforce. The marginalised, underprivileged and poor sections of society should have health outcomes and life expectancy equal to the resourceful Indians.
Therefore, India Greens Party wants:
- The medicare to be a universal, publicly funded health insurance system for all in the country — funded from progressive taxation.
- Primary care and prevention services that provide first contact, community-based care.
- Universal access to publicly funded primary dental care.
- Adequately funded mental health services, including adequately resourced services for the reduction and early detection of mental illness and suicide, and hospital and community-based assessment and support services.
- Health planning that meets the increasing demands resulting from climate change and pandemics and includes a systematic approach to addressing the social determinants of health, shared across all areas of government.
- A properly resourced Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme free from political interference.
- Well-funded preventive health programs which include appropriate screening activities and healthy lifestyle education.
- Promotion of healthy choices, including a ban on junk food advertising.
- Restrictions on the marketing and promotion of pharmaceuticals to health professionals.
- Accessible, culturally-appropriate and community-controlled health services for Adivasis, Dalits and other marginalised peoples that will raise their health status to a level comparable to others.
- Improved access to health professionals in rural and remote areas.
- Access for all women to legal, free and safe pregnancy termination services, and access for all women to a full range of birthing services.
- People with a terminal or degenerative illness to have the right to seek assistance from physicians to have a dignified death at a time of their choosing with appropriate safeguards, based on international best practice models.
- A comprehensive food labelling system that is strongly enforced, mandates full contents and nutritional disclosure, and allows only scientifically-verified health and nutritional claims.
- A comprehensive programme of research into cost-effective care and prevention and a rigorous system for the assessment, approval, regulation and marketing of pharmaceuticals, therapeutic goods, medical devices and other health therapies and technologies.
- A more effective national approach to the prevention of work and road related accidents and provision of injury rehabilitation services.
- The redirection of funds from subsidising private health insurance to the public health system, including public hospitals.
- A consideration of the impacts on health across all aspects of government policy development.
