Affordable Health Care for the Bottom Most People

Abstract

Healthcare is becoming increasingly unaffordable for marginalized people, leaving millions without access to essential quality health services. This paper discusses an innovative, affordable, self-sustaining quality health care system for the poor people at the community level. At the community level, trained health workers will serve as a bridge between patients and medical assistants, medical officers, and specialists. He/she will also provide basic health checks like blood pressure, diabetes, pregnancy test, weight, and height measurement. After the checkup, community health workers connect patients with either a medical assistant or a medical officer, depending on the nature of the disease, through an online platform. This platform also maintains a detailed database on individual patients. The medical officers and medical assistants can issue prescription through this platform instantly. People experiencing poverty will pay less, and the better off will pay full fees for the services, which will make the program sustainable through cross-subsidization. This model can be replicated in the country and abroad for quality health services for people with low incomes.