Follow us on
Welcome Guest! You are here: Home » Health
India: State goes missing in healthcare; 70 percent is private
Thursday May 15, 2014 11:38 AM, IANS

More than 70 percent of healthcare in India is provided by corporate houses as a result of which poor people are not able to afford the high cost of medical care provided by private hospitals, health experts have said.

India Healthcare

"Corporates give good healthcare but charge a lot of money," M.V. Padma Srivastava of the department of neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said at a seminar at the India International Centre here Wednesday evening.

"Seventy percent of healthcare at present is given by corporates. Only 30 percent can afford it. So the others, that is the poor, cannot go anywhere," she said.

"Doesn't this need soul searching within our policy experts," Srivastava questioned.

The seminar 'High Stakes of the Withdrawal of the state from Healthcare' discussed the role of state in providing healthcare to the people of the country.

Srivastava observed that: "Health is not a luxury, it cannot be bartered. It has to be the state's responsibility".

Agreeing with her that more than 70 percent of healthcare in India was provided by corporate houses, Manoj Kumar Singh, senior pathologist at AIIMS said: "There are only 11 countries in the world which have lesser investment in healthcare than India. Every other country has more investment".

"There are only 12 countries across the world which have more spending on private healthcare than India," he added.

Singh said that government servants and many of the policy makers seem to have insulated themselves from state health care by going to private hospitals for treatment.

"Government after government has not made strong policies on healthcare," he said.

According to Ramgopal Agrawal, former chief economist World Bank Mission Beijing, India would become a high-income country by 2050 and all high income countries have high human development indices.

"Healthcare is a critical element of sustained growth. Unless we have a good healthcare system we cannot achieve high income," he said.


Share this page
 Comments
Note: By posting your comments here you agree to the terms and conditions of www.ummid.com
comments powered by Disqus
Advertisement
| Quick links
About ummid.com
Contact us
Feedback
Subscribe to: RSS » Facebook » Twitter » Newsletter
Ummid.com: Disclaimer | Terms of Use | Advertise with us | Link Exchange
Ummid.com is part of the Awaz Multimedia & Publications providing World News, News Analysis and Feature Articles on Education, Health. Politics, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Industry etc. The articles or the views displayed on this website are for public information and in no way describe the editorial views. The users are entitled to use this site subject to the terms and conditions mentioned.
© 2012 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.