Yesterday I wrote about how the Government could make sure that not one Indian needed to die due to the lack of financial resources to pay for his or her dialysis. Some people might question the logic of the money saved from abolishing the Haj subsidy being spent entirely on dialysis. Why not look at other diseases?

Which other disease needs such large amounts to be spent on a treatment week after week, often lifelong, with no respite unless a transplant is done, which itself is very rare?

Someone has a heart valve blockage, one major surgery is done and the person is put on medication. That's it. Someone gets cancer, several rounds of chemotherapy and medication mostly does the trick. Almost every other common disease I can think of needs a temporary intervention possibly followed by medication.

Chronic Kidney Disease is probably the only condition that requires continuous, unending spends of large sums of money on a treatment that is needed just to keep one alive. The number of people that are affected is also quite large to ignore.

There is a precedent too. In the US, End Stage Renal Disease is the only medical condition for which Medicare, the US scheme for medical coverage, provides unending coverage.

It is high time the Indian Government woke up to this reality and did something about it. Especially when we realise that there are practical solutions to this gigantic problem. It is sad that when the money is available, the resources are available, the people are available to make this happen, it still does not happen.