Goa is often described as one of the more well-off states in India when it comes to welfare related issues. The literacy rate of Goa is above the Indian average with a precentage of ca 87%, compared to 74% in the whole country. Many Goan politicians takes great pride in the state welfare system. As a citizen of one of the most famous welfare countries, Sweden, I often ask myself what the foundation of a woking welfare system actually is. What is Sweden good at? What is Goa good at? And what could these very different locations learn from each other?

There are many voices throughout the world that advocate a fully-public welfare system. In Sweden, this thinking is very, very common. Probably because we’ve had a completely public welfare system for many years, and have gotten few examples on how a partly or fully private system would look like. In Goa, however, there are plenty of examples where private welfare options have been available for years, examples of many companies greatly excelling the quality goverment funded institutions. In Goa, few people who have the ability to choose their hospital prefer a public over a private one.

Why is this? Why does the citizens frquently choose private healthcare over public? I think the answer could be very simple. Politicians aren’t better at running hospitals than entrepeneurs, doctors, and surgeons. Given that most people who start helthcare companies are educated in medicine, they of course have better competence to meet their patients’ needs than politicians, who does have a much lower rate of medical education. Even if the personel private and public hospitals employ would be the same, there is still a difference between a leader who have special competence in healthcare matters, and a leader who might have gotten into politics for something else.

But this is not the only reason a big private welfare sector is preferable. Market liberalism is a corner stone to the liberty of choice and the individuals’ freedom to form their own lives. To fund a big public welfare sector, taxation needs to increase. The state would have to cut down on people’s salaries to invest it in their organization, instead of letting people keep their salaries and let them by free will invest it in the enterprise they find better. Private investing promotes freedom as well as quality, the bad institutions would have a harder time to survive while the better ones would grow. With large numbers of people living in poverty, the Indian population does not afford to invest in goverment funded programs that might not even work. It is then much better to let the economically well off invest and create real opportunities for thier poorer fellowmen.

So, how do we make the private welfare available for everybody? This is probably the biggest and hardest questions regarding private welfare. Sweden is today opening up for private enterprises in the welfare sector, and a very important aspect of making that possible has been several tax-switching policies. Tax-switching basically means that you lower the tax on something and increase it on something else to even out budget expenses while opening up new possibilities. If a state were to lower the taxation on welfare enterprises, and increase the taxation on something else, for example, toxins, the private welfare prices would go down and the rate of unhealthy toxins in the air would decrease. A win-win. An other way to handle the private healthcare prices is to re-prioritize the national welfare budget and instead of using it for building too many unattractive hospitals, shelters and schools, use it for statewise welfare-insurance programs for people who can’t pay for their welfare themselves. There is also a possibility to start official charity funds where rich people can donate money to help fund welfare for the poorer. Opportunities are endless.

The fact that the goverment run healthcare institutions is absolutely not negative in any way, however, it is very negative if the ability to choose something else is taken from the Goan citizens. The private healthcare saves many lives every day, closing that sector down could create a gap between good and bad healthcare, which could cost human lives. The private education help many people go from analfabetism to literacy every day, closing that sector could create a gap between good and bad education, which could lower Goas literacy rate. The private sheltering gives people homes every day, closing that sector down could create a gap between the good and the bad sheltering, which could leave people homeless. There are many examples on how a de-privatization could break down the welfare Goa is so proud of, let’s not make that mistake, let’s open even more doors, let’s give every Goan their right to choose.

Karin Mossberg

About me:
Liberal/Conservative politician from the Swedish Moderate Party. Currently located outside Panjim, Goa.

Tags: Goa, india, Powersuit, startups