Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?
3 years, 5 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 service levels. The distribution of public subsidy underscoring curative services remained pro-rich in 2004 but turned less pro-rich in 2018, In respect to post-natal care, similar results were observed, implying the subsidy on pre-natal and post-natal services was overwhelmingly received by poor, although subsidies underlying institutional delivery did not show pro-poor evidence. Although the NHM remained committed to broader expansion of health care services, a singular focus on maternal and child health conditions especially in backward regions of the country has yielded desired results.

Health India Policy Services Poor Outpatient Care Policy Interventions  poor  health  indias  services  subsidy  public  interventions  outpatient  care  postnatal  gain  policy  states

History of this topic

Soaring inflation pushes up health insurance premiums; makes standardised care costlier
3 days, 5 hours ago

Soaring inflation pushes up health insurance premiums; makes standardised care costlier

The Hindu  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, India is witnessing a surge in healthcare cost inflation, making assured and standardised healthcare unviable for several sections of the society and pushing up health insurance premiums. Speaking to The Hindu, Sumit Bohra, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of India notes that currently in India, rising healthcare costs and growing health insurance premiums are feeding …

The challenge of universal health coverage
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 …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
3 months, 2 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
4 months, 1 week 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 …

Transforming health care access and empowering communities
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Transforming health care access and empowering communities

Hindustan Times  

Life expectancy and access to health care have increased globally in recent decades, which has significantly improved general welfare. The World Health Organization states that a health care system should improve population health, prevent health care costs, and meet health expectations. With India's fertility rate declining, it becomes even more critical to integrate fertility-related healthcare into the larger health insurance …

Fiscal transfers from the Union to states and health care in India
6 months ago

Fiscal transfers from the Union to states and health care in India

Hindustan Times  

The key focus of the study is to assess the role of fiscal transfers from the Union government compared to states’ own revenue in explaining their healthcare spending. However, own revenue was more significant than unconditional fiscal transfers in explaining health spending by economically well-off states. In contrast, health spending by economically weaker states was determined solely by unconditional fiscal …

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre
7 months ago

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre

The Hindu  

Public spending on health in India has historically remained low. Note: Union government spending includes spending by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Min of AYUSH Furthermore, a significant part of the increase in health investment as a percentage of GDP during the pandemic needs to be attributed to the negative and low growth of GDP, while absolute increase …

Out-of-pocket health expenditure in India: Inter-state variations
1 year, 4 months ago

Out-of-pocket health expenditure in India: Inter-state variations

Hindustan Times  

Adequate public investment in health, by ensuring better affordability and availability of health care, is crucial for sustaining a resilient public health system. Chart 2 In five states, high public health spending is related to low OOPE, while in four states, low public health spending is related to high OOPE. In eight states, low public health spending is related to …

Centre mandated spending on health has positive impact: study
1 year, 5 months ago

Centre mandated spending on health has positive impact: study

The Hindu  

Measures taken by the National Health Mission have given a positive fillip to the health sector across the country in the past 15 years, a study published in the Public Health For All journal has concluded. The States received funding only if they complied with the Central Government’s schemes, and States were nudged to enhance investment in primary health care. …

Health Matters | How much money is too much money for vaccines?
1 year, 5 months ago

Health Matters | How much money is too much money for vaccines?

The Hindu  

Ultimately affordability decides entitlement. There is also sufficient evidence to back the common knowledge that India has a high burden of out-of-pocket expenditure for health care, meaning payment for health services is made by the patients themselves. Back to pricing, it is also why the low-cost DNA test to detect cervical cancer within 45 minutes comes as good news, specifically …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years 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. …

A heartening health update
2 years, 3 months ago

A heartening health update

Hindustan Times  

The latest report of National Health Accounts — it has data for 2018-19 — shows that India continues to make progress towards reducing the burden of health spending on household budgets. This is a heartening development because the poor are more likely to gain when government spending rather than private health insurance brings about a reduction in OOP spending. As …

Defining a new pathway for enhanced healthcare
2 years, 9 months ago

Defining a new pathway for enhanced healthcare

Hindustan Times  

The challenges faced in the past by the Indian healthcare system pale in comparison with those brought on by the pandemic. Globally it can be seen that government expenditures on health need to be more than 70% to 75% of total health expenditures to deliver truly high-quality healthcare services. A review of the November 2021 State of State Finances report …

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth
2 years, 11 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 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 …

Families in distress: Latest NFHS findings paint bleak picture
3 years ago

Families in distress: Latest NFHS findings paint bleak picture

The Hindu  

Towards the end of November 2021, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released two interesting documents. The report on NHA claimed that the share of the government’s health expenditure in the total gross domestic product increased from 1.15 per cent to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18. Likewise, it said, the share of total government expenditure in total health expenditure …

Loss of income, rise in health expenses: How the Covid pandemic has made Indians poorer
3 years ago

Loss of income, rise in health expenses: How the Covid pandemic has made Indians poorer

India Today  

Sample these: 65.6 per cent households in lower-income countries reported financial reasons for not accessing healthcare during the pandemic; global poverty rates have increased for the first time in decades; 9.7 crore additional people have been pushed to extreme poverty in 2020 due to Covid. “The global poverty rate has increased for the first time after the 1997-98 Asian financial …

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway
3 years, 1 month 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 …

For India to achieve development goals, investing in health and well-being of youths must be a priority
3 years, 1 month ago

For India to achieve development goals, investing in health and well-being of youths must be a priority

Firstpost  

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of investing in young people’s sexual and reproductive health as well as mental well-being With one in five persons being an adolescent and every third a youth, India is a young country today. Even prior to the pandemic, young people faced several barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive health services including, but not …

Wanted: A truly generous health cheque for underserved Indians
3 years, 1 month ago

Wanted: A truly generous health cheque for underserved Indians

Live Mint  

At an annual spend hovering around ₹2,000 per capita, India’s public health expenditure remains one of the lowest among major economies in the world. Yet, in fiscal 2020-21, when the pandemic burst on the scene, India’s government health expenditure inched up to merely 1.5% of GDP. The National Health Policy, in addition to recommending an increase in overall public health …

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India
3 years, 3 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 …

Economic Survey | ‘High out-of-pocket expenses for health can lead to poverty’
3 years, 10 months ago

Economic Survey | ‘High out-of-pocket expenses for health can lead to poverty’

The Hindu  

India has one-of-the highest level of Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures contributing directly to the high incidence of catastrophic expenditures and poverty, notes the Economic Survey. The Survey also underlines that OOPE for health increases the risk of vulnerable groups slipping into poverty because of catastrophic health expenditures. The Survey added that for enabling India to respond to pandemics, the health infrastructure must …

First phase of National Family Health Survey-5 shows startling trends in out-of-pocket health expenses
3 years, 11 months ago

First phase of National Family Health Survey-5 shows startling trends in out-of-pocket health expenses

Firstpost  

Despite swift advances in healthcare, Universal Health Coverage remains a distant dream for India. Image credit: Pixabay NFHS data reveals healthcare costs The Out-of-Pocket expenditure incurred by people while accessing public health services is on the rise. NFHS V data reveals that average out of pocket expenditure per delivery in a public health facility has risen in 10 states and …

Stopping the slide of health care in India
4 years 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 …

Reversing health sector neglect with a reform agenda
4 years, 4 months ago

Reversing health sector neglect with a reform agenda

The Hindu  

Two countries which lead in the COVID-19 cases tally in the world today, namely the United States and India, are also the ones where the need for health-care reform post COVID-19 has been most keenly felt. However, the foundational aspects of U.S. health care, such as a fragmented private insurance landscape and a love for expensive specialised care, could hardly …

Opinion | Not every covid patient can afford to recover at home
4 years, 4 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”. …

Discover Related