Free healthcare policy a political scam in PNG

HEALTHCARE is an essential human need and as such it composes part of the public debate and policy as to how best it can be provided.
In PNG, the Government has since 2012, created a free healthcare policy to ensure that it is free or break even with the intention of making it affordable for everyone.
The implementation of the free healthcare policy was supposed to have been made available right throughout the country more efficiently and effectively.
However, the availability of the healthcare services in the country has been negated by a number of factors including the lack of specialist doctors and equipment, high cost of receiving certain types of healthcare services like tumour operations, poor procurement process and lack of stock, capacity saturation, and reduced government funding.
When the above factors are apparently affecting the delivery of the healthcare services in the country, it is indeed unrealistic and appalling to divulge into the continuous media rhetoric that the so-called free healthcare policy is working in the country.
For sure it is not working as shown by the common procedure for almost all healthcare facilities throughout the country to ration medical drugs and aids and to prescribe medications and then turn patients away to private pharmacies.
These healthcare procedures are definitely not in the public interest for various reasons and even doesn’t reflect a good public policy framework that is in play thus they certainly point to the fact that the free healthcare policy is perhaps a biggest political scam in PNG.

Mike Haro