{"id":112715,"date":"2021-06-16T10:06:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T04:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=112715"},"modified":"2021-06-16T16:59:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T11:29:31","slug":"issues-in-vaccine-procurement-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issues-in-vaccine-procurement-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Issues in Vaccine Procurement Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recent decision of the Centre to solely procure the vaccines for the states has been welcomed by experts and <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-national-commission-for-allied-and-healthcare-professions-ncahp-bill-2020\/\">healthcare professionals<\/a>. However, retaining a 25% quota towards the private sector seems inappropriate and should be reconsidered.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The union government has again taken the responsibility for procuring vaccines for the states under the liberalised vaccine policy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, experts have objected to retaining the 25% procurement quota for the private sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Read Also :<a class=\"seoquake-params-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issues-faced-by-nursing-sector-in-india\/\" rel=\"426d6ec0 x_url\">-Issues faced by Nursing sector in India<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><b>Issues associated with 25% quota<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the private sector possesses <\/span><b>fewer vaccination centres than its approved procurement quota<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This may create a demand-supply mismatch and result in inequitable distribution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the quota is based on a <\/span><b>mistaken assumption of an inflated \u2018middle class\u2019.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The assumption is that 25% of the population is willing and able to pay for a commodity for which social benefits exceed private benefits.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, in reality, the affluent form only a small fraction of the uppermost 25% of our population.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, markets tend to under-produce commodities having significant positive externalities. This is true for preventive measures like vaccines which have lower private demand than curative services.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence, it would be very <\/span><b>difficult to generate demand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for vaccinating in private hospitals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fourth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the top 25% have better access to government vaccination centres. They may choose to get free vaccination, which may <\/span><b>have a \u2018crowding out\u2019 effect for the poorer sections<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fifth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it would <\/span><b>not be possible to attain herd immunity even if 60-80% of the population gets vaccinated<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As there would be the existence of grave disparities along geographic and socioeconomic lines.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Read Also :-<a class=\"seoquake-params-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/right-to-education-is-set-to-expand-its-horizon\/\" rel=\"2836f3cb x_url\">Right to Education is set to expand its horizon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><b>Way Forward:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should <\/span><b>increase its share of procurement by reducing the 25% quota <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for the private sector.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The loss of revenue to vaccine producers from differential pricing of the private sector can be compensated by increased support through Government subsidies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government should refrain from an <strong>\u2018all or none approach\u2019<\/strong> towards the private sector. Where some governments often impose unreasonable and unfavorable pricing restrictions and other governments give too much freedom. There is a need for a balanced approach.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The focus must be on <\/span><b>creating a strategic purchasing framework<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that could utilize the strengths of the private sector which includes innovative processes and efficiency.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It must engage with both small and big private players, and create a more <\/span><b>decentralized and accountable <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/challenges-in-vaccine-procurement-in-india\/\">procurement<\/a> system.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G8M8LVAV3.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Also :-<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/centre-should-relook-its-vaccine-policy\/\">Centre Should Relook its Vaccine Policy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The recent decision of the Centre to solely procure the vaccines for the states has been welcomed by experts and healthcare professionals. However, retaining a 25% quota towards the private sector seems inappropriate and should be reconsidered.\u00a0\u00a0 Background: The union government has again taken the responsibility for procuring vaccines for the states under the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/issues-in-vaccine-procurement-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Issues in Vaccine Procurement Policy<\/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":[1230,8043,9],"tags":[1289,8066,1472],"class_list":["post-112715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-current-affairs-cat","category-public","tag-soc_0","tag-vaccine-procurement-policy","tag-vaccine_related_issues","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704913342},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112715","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=112715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}