It is astonishing how something that is morally and legally ‘good’ can penetrate a wall of opposition built on narrow professional and commercial interests. As was the case with the Right to Health Act passed in Rajasthan Last week, and after an unprecedented uproar, doctors in the state vehemently protested against what they called the ‘draconian law’. The right to health is in consonance with the constitutional guarantee of the right to life and other components of the Directive Principles. No one seeking health care should be denied it on the basis of access and affordability is an acceptable proviso. Rajasthan Right to Health Act, 2022, addresses these key issues of access and affordability. It seeks to “provide for the protection and fulfillment of rights with respect to health and well-being in order to achieve the goal of health care for all through the guarantee of quality health care to all residents of the State, without resort to disaster.” Pocket expenses”. The law, which also provides for a social audit and grievance redressal, entitles every resident of the state to emergency treatment without paying a single penny to any health care institution, and specifies that private health care The institutions will be compensated for the charges incurred for such treatment.
A large number of doctors came out in protest against the law. People who took to the streets of Jaipur said that they do not believe in the government’s promise to reimburse the expenses incurred on the treatment of patients during the emergency. To the allegation that there is no description of the process, health rights activists have said that this would be a function of the rules, not the law itself. The protesting doctors also claimed to be apprehensive about government interference in their work after the enactment of the law. The irony is that they all believe that health care is a right of the people; Only, they believe, the state would have to be the sole provider. However, this is hardly the first such demonstration of the right to health. In 1989, the Supreme Court held that “every injured citizen brought for medical attention should be given immediate medical assistance to save life and thereafter procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate to prevent death by negligence” “. By turning a progressive ideal into law, Rajasthan must now strive to gain the trust of doctors through direct action. Doctors also have an obligation to rise above differences and work together with the government to save human lives.