India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation
3 months ago

India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 25, 2024 12:00 IST - 9 MINS READ As a nation and as a population, India shares with its South and South-East Asian neighbours the legacy of a heavy public health burden shaped by a common historical past. A recent NITI Aayog report reveals that the average monthly per capita health expenditure remains at about 13 per cent of all expenditure against a target of 7.8 per cent. The move to promote the private sector as an “industry” results in extremely serious concerns for public health. Thus, not only is public money being routed majorly to private players who consider health a profit-making industry, it is also increasing healthcare costs per se by pushing tertiarisation, medicalisation, and irrationality. If the public health sector fails, not only will the most vulnerable remain underserved, India will also continue to lose the battle of substantially reducing ill-health due to a lack of emphasis on prevention.

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History of this topic

Spend more on healthcare, Rajya Sabha MPs tell Centre
1 week, 4 days ago

Spend more on healthcare, Rajya Sabha MPs tell Centre

The Hindu  

The Union government’s Budget allocation for healthcare needs to be boosted so that it matches the health spend of other developing nations, Rajya Sabha MPs said during a debate on the Health Ministry on Tuesday. Better life expectancy BJP leader Bhagawat Karad said the Centre’s policies have resulted in increasing the life expectancy from 67 years in 2014 to 70.7 …

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
1 month ago

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
1 month ago

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

Health is a basic human right, say speakers at seminar
1 month ago

Health is a basic human right, say speakers at seminar

The Hindu  

Speakers at the seminar on ‘Health sector in Andhra Pradesh – Social responsibility’, termed health as a basic human right of the citizens, which cannot be compromised at any cost. Mr. Ramesh criticised the State’s proposal to extend medical insurance coverage to all its citizens and wondered how it could ensure better health standards. “Opening up the medical education sector …

Kerala Budget: Not a substantial allocation for health care sector
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Kerala Budget: Not a substantial allocation for health care sector

The Hindu  

The outlay of the State Budget presented by Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal in the Assembly on health care, which excludes health-related expenditure such as water and sanitation, is around ₹3,000 crore, which accounts for 1.74% of the proposed total government expenditure. The issue of poor government spending in the health sector had been plaguing the public health-conscious State like …

Kerala opts for huge WB loan for initiative to improve health system
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Kerala opts for huge WB loan for initiative to improve health system

The Hindu  

The State Cabinet has approved the implementation of the Kerala Health System Improvement Programme under the Health department by taking a loan to the tune of ₹2,424.28 crore from the World Bank. The programme aims at building a resilient health system capable of tackling all emerging health issues while addressing the evolving demographic and epidemiological problems in the State. Goals …

Satya Calls for Efforts to Make AP Healthy State
2 months, 4 weeks ago

Satya Calls for Efforts to Make AP Healthy State

Deccan Chronicle  

Vijayawada: Health minister Satya Kumar Yadav called on the medical fraternity to initiate all necessary measures to ensure the health and well-being of the people, with the goal of achieving a healthy, wealthy, and happy Andhra Pradesh. In an open letter addressed to doctors, supporting medical staff, and the management of both government and private hospitals on New Year’s Day, …

The challenge of universal health coverage
3 months, 1 week ago

The challenge of universal health coverage

The Hindu  

The ongoing national conversation on what India needs to do for universal health coverage often misses the complexity of multiple health systems and the unique challenges they bring. Not the solution Government health expenditure in West Bengal, which was ₹1,346 per capita in 2019-20, is only about 61% of the estimated ₹2,205 required to offer UHC. The story is no …

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden
3 months, 4 weeks ago

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden

The Hindu  

The recent case where a Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus driver passed away after cardiac arrest while on duty, has set off discussions on rising poor health outcomes in our cities. The health burden in urban India Poor urban communities face a triple health burden: hazardous work environments, limited health-care access, and financial vulnerability during health crises, that are exacerbated …

PM Modi Launches Health Cover Plan for Senior Citizens, Hits Out at Delhi and West Bengal Governments
5 months ago

PM Modi Launches Health Cover Plan for Senior Citizens, Hits Out at Delhi and West Bengal Governments

Hindustan Times  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a health cover plan for citizens aged 70 and above under the government's flagship Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). The scheme will provide health coverage to all eligible senior citizens regardless of their income. Modi highlighted that the scheme was a blessing for every person associated with it, be it a …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India

Hindustan Times  

This paper traces the history of the evolution of India’s health care policy framework, focusing on its major objectives, challenges faced, and outcomes emerged. The key themes prevalent across most of these policies and specific initiatives included: increasing public health spending and reducing out-of-pocket or catastrophic health spending; addressing rural-urban inequalities in healthcare; developing primary health care; and achieving universal …

The burden of health care on India’s poorest
7 months, 2 weeks ago

The burden of health care on India’s poorest

Hindustan Times  

In recent years, the Indian government has made significant strides in reducing the burden of health expenditure on the common citizen. A particular focus of the government has been to reduce the burden of severe economic shocks due to “catastrophic” health care expenditure such as hospitalisation. In order to understand the character of catastrophic health expenditure, Artha Global’s Centre for …

Kerala Assembly: Opposition stages walkout over worrying state of public health
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Kerala Assembly: Opposition stages walkout over worrying state of public health

The Hindu  

The United Democratic Front Opposition staged a walkout in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on July 2 accusing the government of “total failure” in making public health a priority and taking no coordinated action on the ground to ensure that preventive and control measures against infectious diseases were on course to prevent a surge in diseases. Satheesan, who led the walkout, …

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks
9 months, 4 weeks ago

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks

Hindustan Times  

A large volume of evidence sharply highlights the rural-urban divide in health outcomes in India, along with the differences in availability, accessibility, and affordability of health care services between rural and urban areas. Health The paper finds that India is far from reaching the goal of effective self-governance of local bodies in urban areas, and one casualty of this gap …

Public-private partnership: Pathway to health for all
10 months, 1 week ago

Public-private partnership: Pathway to health for all

Hindustan Times  

The goal of universal health coverage is one of the most significant commitments to equitable quality health care for all. Health care A true partnership, where the professionalism, patience and perseverance of private sector can positively impact the health of the Indian population across a new private-public partnership nomenclature--the poor, paediatric and pregnant women alike. · Technology and innovation towards …

Healthcare privatisation linked with worse outcomes, higher profits: Lancet Study
10 months, 1 week ago

Healthcare privatisation linked with worse outcomes, higher profits: Lancet Study

Deccan Chronicle  

New Delhi: Privatisation of healthcare was found to almost never have a positive effect on the quality of care, and was associated with higher profits, a research that reviewed previous studies of high-income countries such as the US, Germany, Canada, and South Korea has claimed.Researchers said the findings, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, challenged the theory that privatisation …

Have India’s health centres really ‘collapsed’?
1 year ago

Have India’s health centres really ‘collapsed’?

The Hindu  

Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera, Rishabh Malhotra, ‘The Changing State of Health Centres in North India’, Economic & Political Weekly There is a well-documented infamy around public health centres. Localised healthcare “is a much better way of dealing with most health problems than to let patients loose on larger public hospitals or the private sector”. “Health centres today have better facilities, …

Is your vote for health?
1 year, 1 month ago

Is your vote for health?

The Hindu  

There are no two ways about this thing, election fever is in the air and with advancing summer, the earth has begun to sizzle not just with the heat, but also early election preparedness. The NDA ensured continuity of policy by scrapping the Medical Council of India and establishing the National Medical Commission, further strengthened the rural health infrastructure with …

The big diversity blindspot in health policy
1 year, 1 month ago

The big diversity blindspot in health policy

The Hindu  

The math seems to be off, in the equation of health and healing. The cone of the pyramid has an “over-concentration” of not just men, but of doctors, individuals from Delhi-NCR, and bureaucrats, according to a new analysis of India’s National Health Committees between 1943 and 2020. “As you go higher, you have to fight for your views and your …

Praja Arogya Vedika urged Chief Minister Jagan to bring out Right to Health Act in Andhra Pradesh
1 year, 1 month ago

Praja Arogya Vedika urged Chief Minister Jagan to bring out Right to Health Act in Andhra Pradesh

The Hindu  

Praja Arogya Vedika, an affiliate of the Jan Swastha Abhiyan, has appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to bring out the Right to Health Act, which provides access to quality healthcare services to all citizens of the State. Sai Prasad and general secretary T. Kameswara Rao wrote to the Chief Minister on February 11, drawing his attention to …

Populism does not help public health
1 year, 2 months ago

Populism does not help public health

The Hindu  

In the heart of India’s bustling cities and tranquil villages, there is a silent but significant fight raging on the public health front. The absence of specialised courses such as public health engineering in India’s educational institutions points to a gap in the multidisciplinary approach required in public health management. The current physician-centric focus of India’s public health system often …

Health Matters | Here, for the healthcare highs and lows
1 year, 8 months ago

Health Matters | Here, for the healthcare highs and lows

The Hindu  

If we are lucky, it is a mixed bag at the health desk. Assaulted by stories of resurgence of diseases, or emergence of newer pathogen, and buffeted by questions of access to quality health care, we are irrevocably revived by some good news, some development, a reduction in the number of cases, a government scheme that will go an extra …

Patralekha Chatterjee | Right to health in India: Raj law to be test case?
1 year, 11 months ago

Patralekha Chatterjee | Right to health in India: Raj law to be test case?

Deccan Chronicle  

In a country where nearly half of all healthcare costs are still paid for by the patients themselves, you would think a law guaranteeing people’s right to health would be welcomed universally, and with open arms. As I write, comes the news that medical services in Rajasthan are likely to be seriously affected with government doctors and faculty members at …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years, 3 months ago

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare

The Hindu  

India ranks poorly on multiple health financing indicators. Public health insurance schemes have often been reproached for imposing unreasonable package rates on empanelled private providers with a weak regard for actual costs of care. For instance, some countries like Canada have conceived regional health boards that organise care equitably within regions, exploit economies of scale, and bring down healthcare costs. …

Rural areas need human resources for health
2 years, 4 months ago

Rural areas need human resources for health

Hindustan Times  

The Covid-19 pandemic has uncovered the chronic problems in Indian health care including shortage of health care workers, health inequities, and marginalisation of evidence-based public health. This protracted lack of investment has impeded HRH scale up, recruitment, and training and resulted in budgetary constraints that limit their employment, particularly in rural areas. Only 18.8% of rural allopathic doctors held a …

Achieving sustainable development goal targets for health workforce
2 years, 5 months ago

Achieving sustainable development goal targets for health workforce

Hindustan Times  

Healthcare for all is probably India’s most ambitious and necessary dream. As of 2020-21, the most recent year for data reporting, numbers from NITI Aayog tell us that India lags the target by about 8 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 people translating to a shortage of over 50 lakhs of these health workers. Chart: Siddhesh Zadey, ASAR Source: Census …

India must fine-tune its strategy to eliminate Tuberculosis
2 years, 6 months ago

India must fine-tune its strategy to eliminate Tuberculosis

The Hindu  

Termed as the severest crisis in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic dislodged the entire health system in India, sidelining other public health issues, and tuberculosis was no exception. Despite an extensive national programme and a vast private sector, India is the global epicentre for TB, with an estimated 2.8 million TB cases, and with TB killing more than 4,00,000 Indians …

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern
2 years, 8 months ago

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern

News 18  

Around 70 years ago, when India established its First Primary Health Centre, on the recommendation of the Bhore Committee, the idea was Indians will soon have access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to their needs. According to the Fifth Round of National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, half of the families in India …

Heal the nation before healing the rest of the world
2 years, 9 months ago

Heal the nation before healing the rest of the world

The Hindu  

Bolstering health human resources has been a prime focus of many of the Union government’s recent initiatives and policy pronouncements. The Union health Budget 2022 made handsome appropriations for the same, much in line with the Fifteenth Finance Commission’s recommendations which laid a conspicuous emphasis on utilising existing capacities at the district and sub-district levels to train different cadres of …

It’s up to us how to create better solutions of AYUSH for ourselves and for the world as well: PM
3 years, 1 month ago

It’s up to us how to create better solutions of AYUSH for ourselves and for the world as well: PM

The Hindu  

Seeking to provide more opportunities to Indian students in the field of medical education, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged the private sector “to get into this field in huge quantities’’ and sought the intervention of State governments to make good policies in giving land for this type of work. Speaking at a webinar on the Union Budget announcements …

Reviving the ‘Kerala Model’ of development
3 years, 1 month ago

Reviving the ‘Kerala Model’ of development

The Hindu  

Kerala has long been recognised to have done many things right. For years the darling of development experts, non-governmental organisations and social activists, the ‘Kerala Model’ seemed to show that impressive levels of human development indicators — in health, education and quality of life, comparable even to some rich countries — could be achieved without a correspondingly high level of …

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth
3 years, 2 months ago

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth

Deccan Chronicle  

India’s economy has seen a sharp rebound after the first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to be the fastest growing major economy this year. Low government health expenditure leads to higher per capita out-of-pocket expenditure, impacting disposable incomes and access to healthcare. Therefore, India must increase its public expenditure on healthcare from the current 1.3 per …

The political pathway to health system improvements in India
3 years, 3 months ago

The political pathway to health system improvements in India

Hindustan Times  

The Indian health care sector has made significant progress in the last few decades. In this paper, the authors analyse the political determinants of improved health outcomes, making a case for political attention to healthcare, through increased investments, health care reforms and improved capacity to deliver curative and public health. The shortcomings of low public investment in health, a fragmented …

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway
3 years, 4 months ago

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway

The Hindu  

The central government’s flagship health insurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, aims to extend hospitalisation cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family per annum to a poor and vulnerable population of nearly 50 crore people. Apart from AB-PMJAY and State-level government health insurance schemes, small segments of the Indian population are covered under social health insurance …

Reimagining human resources for health in India
3 years, 6 months ago

Reimagining human resources for health in India

Hindustan Times  

The state, market and people of India have played proactive roles in transforming the health human resource scenario in India over 75 years. Did our health human resource strategy and financial planning keep pace with the legitimate aspirations of every citizen for good health and access to health care? A closer look at the pandemic response and the impact on …

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India
3 years, 7 months ago

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India

Hindustan Times  

Any discussion of the pathways that India needs to take towards Universal Healthcare would be incomplete without a clear understanding of how it is to be financed. However, perhaps the most important challenge that we face in our UHC journey is that while the proportions being allocated to healthcare by each state government from its annual budget vary greatly and …

Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?
3 years, 8 months ago

Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?

Hindustan Times  

This article examines whether health policy interventions and accelerated health investments in India during 2004-2018 could close the gap in inequity in health care utilisation and access to public subsidy by different population groups. Employing Benefit-Incidence Analysis framework, this paper advances earlier evidence by highlighting estimates of health care utilisation, concentration and government subsidy by broader provider categories and across …

The rural healthcare challenge
3 years, 9 months ago

The rural healthcare challenge

Hindustan Times  

Covid-19 made inroads into rural and peri-urban areas during the second wave, with rural districts accounting for 53% of new cases and 52% of Covid-19 deaths in May, according to a recent report. In contrast to urban areas, preventive care services, including maternal and child health services, family planning, and immunisation, have dominated rural health allocations, and curative care has …

World Health Day 2021: What public health lessons can India learn from COVID-19 pandemic?
3 years, 11 months ago

World Health Day 2021: What public health lessons can India learn from COVID-19 pandemic?

Firstpost  

COVID-19 has renewed the focus on public health threats – making countries review their public health systems and healthcare infrastructure. World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April and it is the perfect occasion to review India’s response to COVID-19 and identify threats to our health security that can be rectified on a warfooting. Similarly, India needs to pass a …

Private Sector Can Play a Role in Biggest-ever Vaccination Drive, but with Regulations in Place
4 years, 1 month ago

Private Sector Can Play a Role in Biggest-ever Vaccination Drive, but with Regulations in Place

News 18  

The recent government announcement to engage the private sector in the Covid-19 vaccination drive is not surprising as some prominent industry leaders had already appealed for such collaborations. The details of the roll-out plan are emerging, but it seems the government would procure the vaccines and distribute them to some 20,000 private hospitals empanelled under PMJAY along with public hospitals. …

Stopping the slide of health care in India
4 years, 3 months ago

Stopping the slide of health care in India

The Hindu  

India’s health care is a dark echo chamber. What makes insurance and private health care an egregious combination is that the insurance backup incentivises hospitals to expand the bill but the patients do not get attended to in their best interests. In any case, insurance of secondary and tertiary care pushes out long-term investment by the state and people and …

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children
4 years, 4 months ago

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children

Firstpost  

Undernutrition continues to be associated with 50 percent of all under-five deaths and India accounts for third of the world’s stunted children according to the Global Nutrition Report 2018. As Oxfam’s Commitment to Reducing Inequality highlights, India’s spending on public health is the fourth lowest in the world. The result is an impact on healthcare delivery where access to routine …

Opinion | Not every covid patient can afford to recover at home
4 years, 7 months ago

Opinion | Not every covid patient can afford to recover at home

Live Mint  

In early June, my 90-plus uncle developed a fever. The “home isolation packs” offered by private health providers of “covid-protocol trained and equipped” medical attendants are a cheaper and safer alternative. Journalist Puja Mehra points out that India’s total healthcare spending is 3.6% of gross domestic product and that the “average for OECD countries in 2018 was 8.8% of GDP”. …

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era
4 years, 8 months ago

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era

Firstpost  

With the private health sector failing to provide equitable healthcare, we should consider regulations to ensure it acts in the people’s interests and not in the quest for profits. As we highlight the population issues on World Population Day, it is also important to put India’s healthcare system under the scanner and address the barriers to delivering quality healthcare services …

Needed, a transfusion for public health care
4 years, 9 months ago

Needed, a transfusion for public health care

The Hindu  

A news channel in India alleged recently that several private hospitals in the country were “exposed” by a “sting operation” to be levying fees in excess when COVID-19 patients went to them for care. A mirror to public care The reason for this abundance of private health care is obviously the lack of adequate public health care. The Indian government …

Paging the private sector in the COVID fight
4 years, 9 months ago

Paging the private sector in the COVID fight

The Hindu  

The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to disappear in the immediate future. There are no clear policy guidelines to use private sector resources that could complement public sector efforts, and how the payments for their services made. Here, we propose certain policy options to leverage private sector resources for testing, hospitalisation, procurement of biomedical equipment and supplies, and a central intelligence …

The healthy way to fix the economy
4 years, 10 months ago

The healthy way to fix the economy

Live Mint  

As we enter the tenth week of lockdown, it is hard to get past debates on the effectiveness of India’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Getting past these debates, however, allows us to recognize what the last two months represent: The most expensive and effort-intensive public health intervention in modern Indian history. One way is to look at other urgent …

Caste and public health
4 years, 10 months ago

Caste and public health

The Hindu  

INDIA is one of the world’s leading destinations for medical tourism, and yet it ranks abysmally low in terms of child and maternal nutrition in the world. But the limitation of this private health care system is that it has no space for the classical public health concerns, made apparent by COVID-19. The Brahminical elite and neoliberal state have created …

Pushing for healthcare as a fundamental right in India | The Hindu Parley podcast
4 years, 10 months ago

Pushing for healthcare as a fundamental right in India | The Hindu Parley podcast

The Hindu  

India has never spent more than 2% of its GDP on healthcare. And healthcare facilities across the country straddle several levels of efficiency and sufficiency. While States such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu fare better, the impact of a virulent COVID-19 has shaken even the States that traditionally have done well. Read the story here With COVID-19 having put the …

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