Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
A text message has gone viral on social media and Whatsapp, claiming that the Centre has tabled the National Commission For Controlling Medical Inflation Bill, 2022, and that it would soon be an act after being passed by the Parliament within 30 days of discussion.
Here’s how the forward reads—
THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CONTROLLING MEDICAL INFLATION BILL, 2022
Soon it will be an Act , passed by the Parliament in total 30 days of discussion after it is presented to the Parliament.
Government wants to control this inflation by bringing in a legislation.
Medical inflation is rising cost of all the medical services (All the matters connected with health).
A National Commission will have members nominated by Central Government and appointed by President of India.
Functions of the National Commission will be to monitor the rising medical expenses, standardise the prices of every services, determine the upper limit of the fee charged, draft a national policy for the standardisation of medical expenses , design an appropriate quality assurance framework, prepare a standard template for determining the cost of procedures and ensure the rational prescription of drugs.
Commission to have powers of Civil Court for summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person, requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence on affidavits, requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office and issuing commission for the examination of witnesses and documents.
This is a brief on the bill.
Fact check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “national commission medical inflation bill”, which led us to multiple news reports, seen here and here, about the bill.
According to a Deccan Herald report, dated December 9, 2022, “Citing that the cost of medical treatment in India went up by 7.21 per cent, CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar introduced a private member’s bill in Rajya Sabha seeking to set up a national commission to control “medical inflation”.
The National Commission for Controlling Medical Inflation Bill, 2022, piloted by the Kerala MP said healthcare expenses are increasing at a “very fast rate” every year and even the middle class are not being able to afford hospitalisation, the report read. There is no mention of it being taken up for discussion in the Parliament.
The report, however, stated that the bill proposes to set up the National Commission for Controlling Medical Inflation, with powers of a civil court, to be set up in the country with a Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and five other members, indicating that the features of the bill as mentioned in the viral forward are correct.
What is a private member’s bill?
A member of parliament (MP) who is not a minister is a private member. The bills introduced by private members are referred to as Private Member’s Bills. The Bills introduced by ministers are called government Bills. The government bills have the backing of the government and reflect its legislative agenda. Whether the Private Bill has to be admitted or not is decided by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
According to Moneycontrol, the MP who wants to move a Private Member’s Bill has to give at least a month’s notice, for the House Secretariat to examine it for compliance with constitutional provisions and rules on legislation. While a government Bill can be introduced and discussed on any day, a private member’s bill is only introduced and discussed on Fridays.
Also, no Private Member’s Bill has been passed by the Parliament since 1970, according to PRS Legislative Research. So far, the Parliament has passed 14 such Bills, six of them in 1956.
A further search led us to this tweet, dated December 12, published by the Communist Party of India – CPI, proving that the bill was introduced by a private member recently and is still in the initial stages.
Conclusion
While a National Commission for Controlling Medical Inflation Bill, 2022, has been recently introduced in the Parliament, it is not a government bill and is yet to be discussed.
Result: Partly false
Sources
Deccan Herald report, December 9, 2022
Tweet by Communist Party of India, December 12, 2022
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
