Free test for coronavirus are going to be available only to the poorest in all government lab or hospital, the Supreme Court said today, leaving the govt to make a decision who else should get the benefit. Private laboratories, the court said, can still charge the testing fee as fixed by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country’s nodal body for coronavirus testing. The Court has allowed private laboratories to charge patients up to Rs 4,500 per test.
The court, which said last week that free tests for COVID-19 should be available to all, changed its decision after private laboratories said they would not be able to afford it.
“ We are observing that the government is doing its best. We are modifying our order. Now the government can decide which categories get free testing,” said the judges hearing the case.
In its order today, the court said free testing for COVID-19 will be available to “persons eligible under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana as already implemented by the Government of India, and the other category of economically weaker sections of the society as notified by the Government”.
The Centre and the health ministry can decide whether “any other categories of the weaker sections”, like workers belonging to low income groups in the informal sectors or beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer and others should be eligible.
The government should make this decision within every week and inform the court, the judges said.
After many discussion, the court had ordered free testing for COVID-19, calling it a humanitarian issue.
Most of the laboratories objected who work privately, saying even under the government-mandated charge of Rs 4,500, they're barely ready to recover the prices , which include specific infrastructure, reagents, consumables and manpower. Calling the order “humanitarian,”, Biocon Ltd Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said it might be “impractical” to implement.
“Supreme Court Orders All Coronavirus Tests To Be Made Free – a judgement which will severely affect testing. Pvt labs simply can't be expected to run their businesses on credit,” her tweet read
