{"id":106883,"date":"2021-05-15T09:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T04:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=106883"},"modified":"2021-05-15T20:48:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T15:18:39","slug":"state-should-form-a-joint-committee-to-negotiate-covid-vaccine-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/state-should-form-a-joint-committee-to-negotiate-covid-vaccine-price\/","title":{"rendered":"State should form a joint committee to negotiate COVID vaccine price"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis- <\/strong>Vaccine Price, availability and affordability [for 18-44 age group] would require a coordinated effort from state governments.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Introduction-<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The central government has pulled out from the third phase of the vaccination drive. The center has provided state governments\u2019 the full responsibility for vaccinating [a group that constitutes about 40 per cent of the population].<\/li>\n<li>Now state governments have to procure vaccines directly. Further, they also need to compete with private players at the same time for a better price. As there is only a limited number of capacity and vaccine suppliers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>How can the state bring down vaccine prices?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>In contrast to a market with multiple buyers, a single buyer can always negotiate a lower price for a product with one or more sellers. Thus, to bring down vaccine price<strong>, the State governments should form a consortium. <\/strong>There are some factors related to this. Such as,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Involvement of Pre-purchase agreements-<\/strong> This would tackle any uncertainties from the point of view of vaccine manufacturers. It will also allow for faster expansion of production capacity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Delay in the formation of the consortium will impact the procurement &#8211;<\/strong> Any delays will strengthen the potential private buyers&#8217; position. It will automatically weaken the position of the consortium to negotiate a lower price. This will result in,\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Further, widening of vaccination gap between the rich and the poor<\/strong> \u2013 The price difference between the consortium&#8217;s agreed prices and private sellers is likely to encourage inequity and black marketing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thus, the formation of a consortium provides a mechanism to achieve affordable prices in India. Further, there is also a survey conducted on <strong>willingness to pay (WTP) for Covid-19 vaccines.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Key highlights of a survey on willingness to pay (WTP) for Covid-19 vaccines<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The survey is conducted for WTP for two possible vaccine choice [one is 100 percent effective and the other is 70 percent effective]\n<ul>\n<li>The maximum WTP on average stood at <strong>Rs 140 for a 100 %<\/strong> <strong>effective vaccine, <\/strong>and at about <strong>Rs 109 for one with 70 % effectiveness.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Only <strong>2 % were willing to pay Rs 600 or more to 100 % effective vaccine<\/strong> and 1.5 % were willing to pay the same amount for the other vaccine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nearly 66 % of the respondents experienced an income reduction of more than 50 percent as compared to the last year\u2019s income levels. <strong>WTP also declined uniformly with the level of economic shock experienced. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>So, the economic ability of these households to afford vaccination is severely restricted.<\/li>\n<li>Apart from that, leaving sections of the eligible population out of vaccine coverage poses further risks of mutations in the virus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Suggestions to reduce Vaccine price and provide universal vaccination<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Shortage of the vaccine, poor administration and vaccine hesitancy is the reason for low rate of vaccination, therefore-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>State governments must take immediate action to form a consortium and make provisions for further subsidization of the vaccine.<\/li>\n<li>Implementing budgetary solutions like <strong>public health bonds<\/strong> will help to improve public finances.<\/li>\n<li>Further, the government must focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/universal-vaccination-in-india-challenges-and-way-forward-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Universal vaccination<\/a>. To achieve this, the center can allow State governments to exceed budget deficit targets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source- <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/covid-19-second-wave-vaccination-price-shortage-7314175\/\">The Indian Express<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis- Vaccine Price, availability and affordability [for 18-44 age group] would require a coordinated effort from state governments. Introduction- The central government has pulled out from the third phase of the vaccination drive. The center has provided state governments\u2019 the full responsibility for vaccinating [a group that constitutes about 40 per cent of the population].&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/state-should-form-a-joint-committee-to-negotiate-covid-vaccine-price\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">State should form a joint committee to negotiate COVID vaccine price<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,8043,1351,1310,9],"tags":[1289,1472],"class_list":["post-106883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-current-affairs-cat","category-daily-news","category-daily-news-updates","category-public","tag-soc_0","tag-vaccine_related_issues","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704832743},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}