India: Former health secretary quits Lancet commission on healthcare reform, citing “corporatisation”

A Lancet commission on India’s healthcare system has sparked controversy after one of its members stepped down, claiming that a forthcoming report supports privatisation of the country’s primary health sector.

K Sujatha Rao, former health and family welfare secretary and member of the commission, posted on X on 17 September (but since deleted): “Glad to quit the Lancet Commission on reimagining India’s health system that was proposing corporatisation of primary care and replicating the US model. The only country that despite spending 18% GDP on health has no universal health coverage. In an already unequal society, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Rao’s departure followed that of several others on the commission.

A 2021 report by the National Health Systems Resource Centre in India said that outsourcing the management of primary health centres—government owned health facilities that serve as the first point …