Financing Health in India: An Overview

Abstract

Financing health care means ensuring adequate funds for health care to provide equitable access to all people and to reduce financial burden on the people. India’s healthcare system is neither sufficient nor updated. Quality of health care services is one serious issue in the country. Each year 122 person per 1 lakh die due to poor quality of care. There is linkage between poor quality of health service and low investment on health. For the last three decades Indian Government’s spending on health ranges
between 1% to only 1.6% of GDP. The Indian government has been taking the major responsibility in health sector. It provides health care services to the people free of costs. But the public health systemis insufficient in comparison to the huge population size. Depriving quality health care services people are forced to move towards private health care providers. But in return of higher price the services provided by private players are not adequate. The objective of this paper is to have an
overview on the healthcare financing system of India and its consequences. It is found that government’s share of spending is decreasing while out of pocket expenditure is in an increasing trend in India.