1.1 Principles
The Indian National Green Party believe that good health is dependent upon:
a) the environmental, social, political, economic, cultural and spiritual context of life;
b) protection of the biosphere and Earth’s ecosystem, and ecological sustainability;
c) peace and nuclear disarmament, freedom from war, freedom from violence in the community and in the home;
d) social justice and community participation in decision-making;
e) the provision of equal access to affordable, appropriate health services, which emphasise care as well as cure;
f) an emphasis on community-based and community-controlled primary health care, available from a comprehensive range of service providers;
g) the placement of greater emphasis on health promotion, disease prevention and education for optimum health;
h) research which encompasses traditional and alternative/complementary treatment modalities;
i) an intersectoral approach to policy-making with health-outcomes criteria affecting decisions made across a range of portfolios, such as transport, housing, environmental protection, employment, local community services and education;
j) the availability of a universal health fund covering not only medical and hospital, but including the full range of appropriate health services and also including dental and nursing services; and
k) forms of treatment which have been developed in an ethical framework which acknowledges true environmental and social cost/benefits.
1.2 Goals
The Indian National Green Party aim to:
a) develop and implement a national environmental health strategy which supports a public health approach to health enhancement, and identifies clear national health priorities;
b) reduce high hospital admission rates by re-orienting health service provisions to a public health focus which is preventive, and to a primary care approach concerned with maintenance of optimum health status;
c) phase out the use of animals for medical research;
d) instigate a parliamentary inquiry into iatrogenic deaths in hospital;
e) develop, with widespread community consultation, a Health Bill of Rights and Responsibilities;
f) ensure that India fulfils international obligations to address environmental issues which impact on health;
g) ban the use of hormones and drugs on farm animals, other than those medications which are therapeutic and individually prescribed by veterinarians;
h) restrict the use of chemical food additives and the practice of irradiating food;
i) consider the effects of fluoridation of drinking water ;
j) expand the network of multi-disciplinary community health centres which will provide a range of treatment options, with community-based control of resource allocation;
k) expand the availability of birthing centres, where midwives provide primary management;
l) expand the availability of mobile women’s health centres in remote and rural areas;
m) initiate programme aimed at reducing suicide rates, particularly among young people and people in rural areas;
n) reintroduce dental care as a service claimable under Medicare.
1.3 Short Term Targets
The Indian National Green Party support:
a) the maintaining of Medicare;
b) an increase in the Medicare levy on the basis that such funds (ie. those derived from the increase ) be directed specifically to primary and public health care (ie. to maintenance of optimum health) rather than to reactive disease management interventions;
c) the proposal that all pharmaceutical drugs be sold under their generic name as well as under their commercial one and that the generic name appear in all advertising for a particular drug;
d) the implementation of legislation whereby Medicare rebates are available across a wider range of therapeutic interventions;
e) the development and implementation of social policies to address the widespread over-use of medications.

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