| No Cover for the Old  It might sound harsh but there seems to be a premium on barbarism. There is no other way to describe the callousness of the UPA regime when it comes to health care of its senior citizens. And there are-as in 2006-over 81 million citizens who are over 60 years of age. Thanks to a warped sense of profitability obviously arrived at by some babu on Raisina Hill who enjoys lifelong AIIMS cover, senior citizens are denied medical cover. For some time now citizens over the age of 60 have been discouraged from buying health insurance even if they are willing to pay the premium. At best, senior citizens are allowed to renew their policy till the age of 75 but not upgrade the amount of coverage. Perhaps the factor that plays a part is life expectancy which is currently under 65. But this denies those with better health the option to cover themselves. You would think that a government that claims to be "aam aadmi ke saath" and which swears by "inclusiveness" would tend to this glaring anomaly. But things have only worsened. The Left Front might want to note that it is not the "foreign" or "private" insurance companies which they rant about but PSUs who have triggered this barbarism. Last month, some public sector insurance companies decided to deny agents commission if they renew policies of those above 55 years. And to think that Indira Gandhi nationalised banking and insurance to curb the profiteering tendencies of private insurers. Worse, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority is supportive of this bizarre measure. Its rationale: those over 55 can either pay the agent the commission or approach companies directly. The companies may contend that the probability of a person over 55 or 60 to suffer critical illness is higher than those younger. No doubt. But is the denial of choice the answer? The unstated expectation is that senior citizens can either fend for themselves out of their depleting savings or queue up at a municipal hospital or pray to the Almighty. The principle of health insurance is based on the simple law of average: 99 people with better health pay for one whose health is failing. So the obvious solution is to either use the booming "young population" to subsidise senior citizens (a la social security in the West), hike the premium as required or offer a system where the senior citizen is paid at least a ratio of his healthcare expenditure. Anything less would be barbaric. | 
