Is Health Insurance the answer to India’s healthcare woes ?

Well thats the question I have been asking myself all these years. Now seriously, the only country that spends 17 % of its GDP on healthcare and is ranked among the best healthcare systems in the world providing care to more than 300 million people is the United States of America. And the healthcare system there is run by Health Insurance firms.

India on the other side spends far lower, it is estimated that we spend about 5.7 % of its GDP on Healthcare. Almost 75% of it is in the private sector. As a matter of fact almost 80% of outpatients, pharmaceutical spend and ambulatory care is covered by the private sector. When it comes to inpatient it is 50-50 % with government and the private sector sharing the spend. It is only in the primary care and preventive space that government bears almost 95% of the spend. All immunization programs for example are run by the government.

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