A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State government to provide insulin free of cost to diabetic patients at government hospitals and include complete treatment for diabetes under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
Justices R. Subbiah and C. Saravanan on Friday granted two weeks’ time to the government to reply to the petition preferred by advocate clerk G. Devarajan. The petitioner had claimed that thousands of people die every year due to diabetes related ailments and that most of them were those who could not afford to purchase insulin.
In an affidavit filed in support of his petition, he said the country was home to more than 65 million diabetic patients and the numbers had grown exponentially compared to 50.8 million recorded in 2010. According to the International Diabetes Federation, the number of diabetics was expected to cross the 100 million mark by 2030.
Major causes
Rapid urbanisation, demographic transition and lifestyle modifications were the major causes for the increase, he added. Though the government provides medicines free of cost to diabetics who approach the government hospitals, insulin injections were sold only at subsidised prices and not provided free of charge, he said.
Stating that those dependant on insulin would have to shell out somewhere between ₹ 35,000 to ₹ 75,000 per annum towards treatment costs, the petitioner said it would be impossible for the economically poor to purchase insulin injections even at subsidised prices and, therefore, the government must step in to help them.
He said the government could not cite financial burden as a reason for not providing the life-saving insulin injections free of cost to needy patients especially when it was able to mobilise funds for giving away fans and mixer grinders free of cost to all ration cardholders in the State to keep up promises made during elections to woo voters.
