Less than a third of Indians go to public hospitals for treatment
4 years, 10 months ago

Less than a third of Indians go to public hospitals for treatment

Live Mint  

As coronavirus cases spread across the country over the past few weeks, private hospitals began closing their doors to patients. In Bihar, only 18 percent went to public hospitals whereas 65 percent reported getting treated by a private doctor. This is despite the fact that average medical expenditure per hospitalisation case in private hospitals in 2017-18 was ₹31,845 - as much as seven times higher than in public hospitals. After including other non-medical expenses such as transport, the total cost per hospitalisation case in private hospitals was ₹34,551, as against ₹6,050 in public hospitals. The NSS data suggests that the poor quality of service in public hospitals, the long queues, and in some cases, the absence of the required specialists force people to visit private hospitals and medical centres for treatments.

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History of this topic

Health Gets 30 per Cent More Funds Than Last Year: Minister
3 weeks, 4 days ago

Health Gets 30 per Cent More Funds Than Last Year: Minister

Deccan Chronicle  

Vijayawada: Health Minister Satyakumar Yadav has said five multi-specialty hospitals are being constructed in tribal areas at a cost of Rs 50 crore each. The minister thanked the state assembly for sanctioning a budget grant of Rs 19,264 crore for medical and health, and noted that this was 30 per cent more than the budget allocations for health from the …

Costly cancer treatment deters many from seeking early diagnosis in Kerala
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Costly cancer treatment deters many from seeking early diagnosis in Kerala

New Indian Express  

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state, known for its strong health-seeking culture, is facing a paradox. Despite high public awareness and a proactive approach to health, soaring cancer treatment costs are deterring many from seeking early diagnosis and care. A recent report by the Economic and Statistics Department shows nearly 20% of patients across all conditions resort to borrowing money or selling property …

88% in rural, 75% in urban Kerala die in hospitals, doubling European average: Study shows
2 months, 2 weeks ago

88% in rural, 75% in urban Kerala die in hospitals, doubling European average: Study shows

New Indian Express  

KOCHI: Around 88% of people in rural Kerala and 75% in urban Kerala spend their final moments in hospitals, as per a new study. “Kerala seems to be more medicine-centric than the US, where 80% of deaths occur in hospitals,” said D Narayana, economist and former director of Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, who is now professor of eminence …

Hospital beds, specialists: Why health takes centre stage in Maharashtra's poll promises
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Hospital beds, specialists: Why health takes centre stage in Maharashtra's poll promises

India Today  

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 has a flood of poll promises in the field of healthcare. The National Profile 2023 shows that Maharashtra has the lowest number of government hospitals in terms of per capita population and the number of beds for every lakh population in the state is almost equal to that in Bihar. While Himachal Pradesh has 222 beds …

Kerala spends highest out-of-pocket expenditure on health in India
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Kerala spends highest out-of-pocket expenditure on health in India

New Indian Express  

KOCHI: Increased incidence of lifestyle diseases and high cost of diagnostic tests, coupled with the disappearance of not-for-profit hospitals and people’s reluctance to opt for government medical institutions have pushed Kerala’s out-of-pocket expenses in healthcare to the highest among states, a recent survey has revealed. As per the Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey 2022-23 by the National Sample Survey Office under …

The imperative for fair and sustainable treatment costs
10 months, 1 week ago

The imperative for fair and sustainable treatment costs

Hindustan Times  

The ministry of health's recent initiative to engage private hospitals in consultations on standardising treatment costs reflects a groundbreaking moment in India's health care ecosystem. Balancing accessibility and affordability while maintaining quality standards remains a critical challenge that health care providers and policymakers must address to ensure equitable health care access for all. One of the key challenges in health …

Union Budget: Healthcare challenges and how the government can navigate them
1 year, 2 months ago

Union Budget: Healthcare challenges and how the government can navigate them

Firstpost  

The healthcare industry has always been the core of any flourishing civilisation. Modern medical challenges Public expenditure on healthcare contributes to only 1.3 per cent of GDP, resulting in compromised healthcare standards. As per some projections, AI utilisation in healthcare resource optimisation could contribute $25 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. Role of government in shaping healthcare The government must …

Rapid survey highlights lack of access to free medicines in Karnataka government hospitals
1 year, 7 months ago

Rapid survey highlights lack of access to free medicines in Karnataka government hospitals

The Hindu  

A rapid survey by Sarvatrika Arogya Andolana Karnataka, has found that patients visiting government hospitals are spending an average ₹433 per visit out-of-pocket to buy medicines. The survey done through oral enquiry with 600 patients in pharmacies outside government hospitals in 12 districts, found that overall these patients had spent ₹2,58,809 on buying medicines during the survey period from July …

What you can do to reduce your out-of-pocket-expenditure on healthcare
1 year, 10 months ago

What you can do to reduce your out-of-pocket-expenditure on healthcare

Live Mint  

The young advertising executive was on his way home from office when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. First, the hospital where he was admitted said that he had to immediately pay ₹50,000 towards admission—It informed him that he was not eligible for cashless admission since the hospital was not part of the insurer’s network. While people with …

Data | India’s Cancer Crisis: Rising Prevalence of the Most Expensive Disease to Treat
2 years ago

Data | India’s Cancer Crisis: Rising Prevalence of the Most Expensive Disease to Treat

The Hindu  

On March 14, the Minister of State for Health said cancer cases in India will cross the 15 lakh mark by 2025. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report on cancer, released in September 2022, expressed concern about the “inaccessible and increasing cost of cancer treatment.” For instance, according to the National Sample Survey 2017-18 report, the average medical expenditure per hospitalisation …

₹2,828.33 crore for public health in Kerala Budget
2 years, 1 month ago

₹2,828.33 crore for public health in Kerala Budget

The Hindu  

The State Budget 2023-24 speaks about transforming Kerala into global healthcare capital, providing better healthcare services, focussing on health tourism and expanding and modernising existing facilities. “Navakerala Karma Padhati-2”, which has clubbed Rebuild Kerala Initiative and four Missions — Haritha Keralam, Aardram, LIFE and Vidya Kiranam — together gets an outlay of ₹10 crores in the Budget, while a chunk …

Economic Survey 2022-23 | Out-of-pocket health spending still high, despite hike in government expenditure
2 years, 2 months ago

Economic Survey 2022-23 | Out-of-pocket health spending still high, despite hike in government expenditure

The Hindu  

Almost half of all health spending in India is still paid by patients themselves directly at the point of treatment, although this has dropped as the government’s share of spending on health went up significantly after 2013-14, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23. The share of government health expenditure in total health expenditure was just 28.6% in the financial year …

Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka does not fully deliver on promised assurance of health coverage
2 years, 5 months ago

Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka does not fully deliver on promised assurance of health coverage

The Hindu  

Four years after the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka, the State’s flagship health assurance scheme, was launched, easy access and free treatment during emergencies still eludes people. Most private hospitals are not keen on empanelment citing “low-package rates”, fixed by the government for the 1,650 procedures covered under the scheme. Prasanna H.M. president of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association said …

Andhra Pradesh\'s health reforms package costs Rs 16,225 crore
2 years, 6 months ago

Andhra Pradesh\'s health reforms package costs Rs 16,225 crore

Deccan Chronicle  

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Jagan Reddy said in the state assembly on Tuesday that the government is spending Rs 16,225 crore through the Nadu-Nedu on medical and health reforms, so as to provide best services to the public. He said the government was also spending Rs 12,268 crore for the establishment of 17 new medical colleges. Jagan said, “YSR Village Clinics …

Impact of 5% GST on non-ICU hospital rooms not significant: Revenue secretary
2 years, 8 months ago

Impact of 5% GST on non-ICU hospital rooms not significant: Revenue secretary

Live Mint  

The 5% GST on non-ICU hospital rooms that cost more than ₹5,000 will not have a significant impact on the affordability of healthcare for a significant portion of the population, said Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj. In a letter to the finance ministry on July 4, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry stated that the 5% GST on …

Rising medical expenses add to financial stress of citizens
2 years, 10 months ago

Rising medical expenses add to financial stress of citizens

The Hindu  

Ragashree Gnanesh, whose aged mother needs regular follow-up with a specialist for her recurring health problems, has been finding it increasingly difficult to cope with medical expenses. With a substantial increase in the cost of living too, medical expenses are turning out to be a huge burden on us,” she said. Manjunath, director of the State-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of …

Take Over 50% Beds From Private Hospitals : Kerala High Court Suggests
3 years, 10 months ago

Take Over 50% Beds From Private Hospitals : Kerala High Court Suggests

Live Law  

Following the High Court's emphatic declaration on Tuesday that it would take up the issue of COVID treatment with some seriousness, the Kerala High Court convened a special sitting to discuss measures to rationalise COVID-19 treatment tariffs across private hospitals, labs, and diagnostic centers in the state. Court's concern on rates charged on Covid beds in private hospitals On the …

Economic Survey | ‘High out-of-pocket expenses for health can lead to poverty’
4 years, 2 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 …

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 …

Hospitals overwhelmed as coronavirus cases explode in India
4 years, 10 months ago

Hospitals overwhelmed as coronavirus cases explode in India

Al Jazeera  

More than a fifth of the country’s coronavirus cases are in Mumbai, where people struggle to find hospital beds. 630,000 to 2.1 million could be infected by July For years, India’s booming private hospitals have taken some of the strain off the country’s underfunded and dilapidated public health network, but the ordeal of Parikh’s family suggests that as coronavirus cases …

Why India needs more mohalla clinics
5 years, 3 months ago

Why India needs more mohalla clinics

Live Mint  

Both rural and urban households spend twice as much on outpatient or non-hospitalisation healthcare costs as they do on hospitalisations, data from a new National Sample Survey report shows. India has one of the world’s highest proportions of out-of-pocket health expenditure, and the expense per hospitalisation can be catastrophically high, especially for the poor. In general poorer people report lower …

Doctor-patient ratio in India less than WHO-prescribed norm of 1:1000: Govt
5 years, 4 months ago

Doctor-patient ratio in India less than WHO-prescribed norm of 1:1000: Govt

India TV News  

There is one doctor for every 1,445 Indians as per the country's current population estimate of 135 crore, which is lower than the WHO's prescribed norm of one doctor for 1,000 people, the government told Parliament on Tuesday. Assuming an 80-per cent availability, it was estimated that around 9.27 lakh doctors were available for active service, which put the allopathic …

To fund Ayushman Bharat, govt plans to evaluate cost of health services first
6 years ago

To fund Ayushman Bharat, govt plans to evaluate cost of health services first

Live Mint  

The centre has decided to evaluate the cost of health services in India to help it undertake strategic planning for its ambitious health insurance programme, Ayushman Bharat, which requires a huge amount of funds. “The cost of technology, recurrent costs, cost of financing, and cost of inflation should be taken into account while undertaking costing of health services,” the official …

An illusory cover
6 years, 7 months ago

An illusory cover

The Hindu  

Earlier this month, the country’s insurance regulator, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, reiterated that insurance companies are required to offer insurance cover for mental illness, thus making treatment on a par with physical illness. By reducing the economic burden, people with mental illness will now have the option of a more productive and integrated life,” says Dr. …

India's healthcare woes: Out-of-pocket medical expenses pushed 55 million into poverty in 2017, says PHFI study
6 years, 8 months ago

India's healthcare woes: Out-of-pocket medical expenses pushed 55 million into poverty in 2017, says PHFI study

Firstpost  

Out-of-pocket health expenses drove 55 million Indians – more than the population of South Korea, Spain or Kenya – into poverty in 2017. By Prachi Salve Mumbai: Out-of-pocket health expenses drove 55 million Indians – more than the population of South Korea, Spain or Kenya – into poverty in 2017, and of these, 38 million were impoverished by expenditure on …

Private Healthcare in India Part III: Enforcing Clinical Establishment Act, capping drug costs can help regulate, reduce hospital bills
6 years, 10 months ago

Private Healthcare in India Part III: Enforcing Clinical Establishment Act, capping drug costs can help regulate, reduce hospital bills

Firstpost  

Clinical Establishment Act requires the Centre to set a range of rates for healthcare services. “We are conducting a costing exercise at the central level, but IMA opposed it.” IMA is legally represented in the National Council for Clinical Establishment Act. In the 2014 sub-committee meeting, Dr Vijay Aggarwal from the IMA said that prescribing a range of rates “is …

Private Healthcare in India Part I: Artificially-inflated cost of medicine, consumables make non-govt hospitals inaccessible to most
6 years, 10 months ago

Private Healthcare in India Part I: Artificially-inflated cost of medicine, consumables make non-govt hospitals inaccessible to most

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: The deteriorating state of public healthcare in India means that an increasingly larger percentage of its citizens are being driven to the private sector for their medical needs. In a report that was released this February, the NPPA said that in the four bills, nearly 40.85 percent of the bill was covered by medicines and medical consumables such …

Current state of healthcare in India requires action across multiple dimensions, says NATHEALTH
7 years, 3 months ago

Current state of healthcare in India requires action across multiple dimensions, says NATHEALTH

ABP News  

New Delhi, Dec 26 : Recent unfortunate incidents in the health system have unsettled the continuum of care leaving the healthcare sector in a 'state of emergency.' While the Indian healthcare sector is passing through some sort of 'emergency', all stakeholders-government, public and private service providers, medical professionals and patients collectively need to make constructive efforts to end the trust …

Health in India: Where the money comes from and where it goes?
8 years, 7 months ago

Health in India: Where the money comes from and where it goes?

The Hindu  

National Health Accounts monitors the flow of resources in a country’s health system and provides detailed data on health finances. It says: “Global evidence on health spending shows that unless a country spends at least 5-6 per cent of its GDP on health and the major part of it is from government expenditure, basic health care needs are seldom met.” …

Indians spend 8 times more on private hospitals than on govt. ones
8 years, 7 months ago

Indians spend 8 times more on private hospitals than on govt. ones

The Hindu  

Indians spent eight times more on private hospitals and twice as much on transporting patients compared to costs in government hospitals, according to the National Health Accounts Estimates for the financial year 2013-14. 4.5 lakh crore on healthcare in 2013-14 at 4 per cent of the GDP, of which Rs. Public spending is abysmally low, constituting around 29 per cent …

Remedying India’s healthcare colossus
8 years, 7 months ago

Remedying India’s healthcare colossus

The Hindu  

Between January and June 2014, 243 people out of 1,000 sought medical treatment within the public healthcare system of India, whereas 756 people out of 1,000 opted to visit a private doctor or private hospital. It is well known that the entire public healthcare system, from tertiary care hospitals in large cities to Primary Health Centres in rural areas, is …

Health cover: Too little, too scarce
8 years, 11 months ago

Health cover: Too little, too scarce

The Hindu  

Over 80 per cent of India’s population is not covered under any health insurance scheme, says the latest National Sample Survey released on Monday. The data reveals that despite seven years of the Centre-run Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, only 12 per cent of the urban and 13 per cent of the rural population had access to insurance cover. The survey …

Private hospitals charge four times more than government ones: National survey
9 years, 1 month ago

Private hospitals charge four times more than government ones: National survey

Firstpost  

The treatment in private hospitals is four times costlier than public facilities, this reflects challenges India faces in providing affordable healthcare New Delhi: The average cost of treatment in private hospitals, excluding child birth, is about four times than that of public healthcare facilities, reflecting the challenges that India faces in providing affordable and accessible healthcare, according to the Economic …

Unregulated sector
9 years, 6 months ago

Unregulated sector

The Hindu  

IN Delhi, only those hospitals that have bought government land at subsidised rates are obliged to give free medical treatment to patients from the economically weaker sections —25 per cent of the outpatients and 10 per cent of the inpatients. In view of the poor health infrastructure in most parts of northern India, poor patients even from faraway places wait …

The growing burden of healthcare costs
9 years, 7 months ago

The growing burden of healthcare costs

Live Mint  

To the global traveller, India is increasingly becoming a destination of choice for medical tourism, with super-speciality hospitals in Indian cities offering medical care at rates lower than that in the developed world. The cost of treatment rose at a double-digit pace of growth, outpacing average inflation in both rural and urban India over the past decade, according to the …

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India, Malayalees Sickes | India TV News.
9 years, 8 months ago

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India, Malayalees Sickes | India TV News.

India TV News  

• As much as 86% of the rural population and 82% of the urban population is without health-expenditure support. • The average medical expenditure for treating one ailment without being admitted to hospital was Rs 509 in rural India and Rs 639 in urban India. • Up to 58% of hospital care occurred in private hospitals in rural India; it …

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India- India TV News
9 years, 8 months ago

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India- India TV News

India TV News  

As much as 86% of the rural population and 82% of the urban population is without health-expenditure support. The average medical expenditure for treating one ailment without being admitted to hospital was Rs 509 in rural India and Rs 639 in urban India. Up to 58% of hospital care occurred in private hospitals in rural India; it was 68% in …

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India- India TV News
9 years, 8 months ago

Rural India Healthier Than Urban India- India TV News

India TV News  

As much as 86% of the rural population and 82% of the urban population is without health-expenditure support. The average medical expenditure for treating one ailment without being admitted to hospital was Rs 509 in rural India and Rs 639 in urban India. Up to 58% of hospital care occurred in private hospitals in rural India; it was 68% in …

63 million people faced with poverty due to healthcare expenditure
10 years, 2 months ago

63 million people faced with poverty due to healthcare expenditure

India TV News  

New Delhi: A whopping 63 million people are faced with poverty every year due to “catastrophic” expenditure over healthcare which neutralises the gains of rising income and various government schemes aimed to reduce poverty, according to the Health Ministry. “Incidence of catastrophic expenditure due to healthcare costs is growing and is now being estimated to be one of the major …

A gateway to health
21 years, 9 months ago

A gateway to health

The Hindu  

In terms of the availability of a large number of well-equipped hospitals, dedicated doctors and treatment expertise of international standards, all at a relatively low cost, Chennai is the place to be for dependable medical care. The majority of the patients from outside Tamil Nadu come to the corporate and multi-speciality hospitals such as Apollo, Malar and Devaki or to …

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