Access to quality healthcare is a basic right of every citizen, not a privilege. But the performance of the government in this area is as dismal and inadequate as in any other area of the social sector. The people have largely been left at the mercies and vagaries of the market owing to meager public spending in the government health sector. Most people either do not have access to medical facilities or simply cannot afford their ever-soaring costs. Many would now have to spend more on drugs as local pharmaceutical companies have raised the prices by 25% to as much as 57%. The manufacturers' excuse, as usual, is the increasing prices of their imported raw materials and currency devaluation. That is inadequate. On the other hand, the government needs to do a few things to keep the drug prices and treatment costs down for the sake of people. Firstly the government should encourage local manufacturing of raw materials as well as off-patent and generic medicines by giving fiscal incentives. Secondly, the drug price regulations need to be made more stringent to pre-empt unilateral price increases by the industry in future. Thirdly, the government must substantially increase its spending on public health to protect the citizens from soaring healthcare costs in the profit-oriented private sector. -MUHAMMAD ARSHAD NADEEM, Islamabad, via e-mail, November 25.