The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : `Insurance system needed to absorb health cost'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`Insurance system needed to absorb health cost'

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 18. The Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, on Monday called for a system of medical insurance that can absorb the prohibitive cost of healthcare with "minimum inconvenience to the patients."

Inaugurating a Cardiac Cath Lab at the Frontier Lifeline, a hospital here under the Dr. K.M. Cherian Heart Foundation, he said medical insurance in the country was still in its infancy, even as the cost of surgery and hospitalisation rmained "prohibitive and beyond the reach of most people, particularly the poor."

Therefore a system of medical insurance that absorbed the cost was necessary, Mr. Barnala said, pointing out that it was the onerous responsibility of the Government to provide the latest advanced medical facilities to the poor and needy.

Congratulating Dr. K.M. Cherian and his team, he expressed confidence that the Lab, which included a digital flat panel screen ensuring superior imaging quality and a full automated C-arm to capture images faster and more accurately, would provide greater clinical perfection.

The incidence of heart diseases, the Governor said, could be reduced by controlling the quantity of food, maintaining proper dietary habits and creating awareness of the effects of alcohol, paan and tobacco.

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