‘Free Health’ in the Face of Healthcare Privatization in Post-1977 Sri Lanka

Ramya Kumar

Ramya Kumar’s article focuses our attention on the remarkable durability of free healthcare in Sri Lanka’s political discourse as one of the key reasons for the uneven nature of the project to ‘liberalize’ the health sector in the direction of the ‘free’ market. Kumar’s article asks us to consider how political considerations may function to resist the neoliberal push for the privatization of healthcare in the country. However, recent revelations of tax holidays for private hospitals and the decision by the Health Ministry to pay private hospitals for the use of operating theatres indicate that private capital (with the collusion of state authorities) continues to find mechanisms for accumulating capital through the health sector.

‘Free Health’ in the Face of Healthcare Privatization in Post-1977 Sri Lanka by Social Scientists’ Association on Scribd