Cautiously relieved by this announcement, though there continue to be challenges. It's still better than before, though.
Suraj wrote:Suggestion: think less of what’s required and more about how it could be misused and ways to mitigate that risk. Govt is swamped by demands of all kinds, and such thinking let’s it stand out .
Though this exercise may be moot now*, let me share some points I was thinking of. Maybe others with better knowledge can help refine the ideas.
To identify people of a specific age-group and medical conditions, why not turn to medical insurance? Insurance companies do the due diligence all the time and their data would be quite reliable given that it's their money on the line. Sure, there can be some fraud by submitting fake claims, but on the whole, the data should be good enough to use. So what could we do:
For those having medical insurance:
1. Submit a recent (within the past 3 months) medical bill paid by the insurance company. It should mention the type of treatment, like chemotherapy or dialysis, or a surgical procedure. Or if there is a mechanism to get a statement from the insurance company, that's also fine.
2. Submit a signed statement from a doctor on an official letterhead with their medical registration number attesting to the co-morbid conditions for the patient. Ideally, this should be the doctor treating the condition, but any doctor with the relevant specialization should be fine.
For those not having medical insurance (perhaps the larger bucket):
1. Submit signed statements on official letterheads with the medical registration number from two doctors. The doctors should be specialists in that field and should be independent of each other, i.e. from different clinics/hospitals.
Drawbacks:
1. This still requires some manual verification, which is difficult and time consuming. But most people may not go to the trouble of taking multiple statements, so risk of misuse should be low. To ensure deterrence, some rules and punishments for fraud could be notified, along with auditing random applications to keep the effort manageable.
2. There is no online method of verification with either the insurance companies, or that of doctor verification numbers.
3. Getting two doctors' opinions would be cumbersome, and many people may just not do it.
4. The onus to prove falls on the patient, who may not be in a position to do this extra effort. But with the paid channel opening up, at least there is an alternative for those who can afford it.
* I hope they still announce a special exemption for such people in the govt channel, for the following reasons:
1. Supplies may continue to be limited as the centre has devolved responsibility to states/individual hospitals. This puts the onus on arranging a shot on the patients themselves, and their condition would make it hard to search around. I think @Bart S made the same point above.
2. These people are still are at risk, and not having a special channel increases their risk of getting infected at the vaccination centers.
3. There would be a lot of poorer people in this bucket depending on govt hospitals for treatment, and would not have insurance. While a few might be able to afford a paid private facility, with the risk factors in #1 and #2, the bulk wouldn't. Getting two doctors' statements would be even more difficult in such cases. Maybe use the govt provided insurance data for them? Not sure about its coverage though.
The above are what I could come up with my limited abilities and understanding. If there's anyone with better knowledge/ideas, kindly suggest. While yesterday's announcement made this somewhat moot, a good policy would be useful if we are going with multiple rounds of vaccinations as some reports suggest, and also be relevant for the poorer section of the population.
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Sponsor a vaccine program: (domestic maitri):
Given the announcement yesterday, maybe the Finance ministry can announce a tax exemption for sponsoring paid vaccination for others - maids, drivers, security staff, etc. For example, assuming it costs ₹1000 for vaccinating an individual (both shots), a sum of up to ₹10000 could be claimed for tax exemption. In effect, 1:10. The tax-payer only needs to declare the vaccination certificate number, or aadhaar number of the beneficiary (privacy implications?) when claiming the benefit. Better yet, just give a one-time standard deduction for an even better response. This can address the problem of poorer people with co-morbidities having trouble proving their eligibility and can counter vaccine hesitancy to some extent among the general population.