Health care costs are causing poverty for nearly 6.5 crore people in India each year. The Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry is organizing a round table discussion on Vision 2030 to address the issue of quality and affordable health care for all in Telangana. Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, founder of the Loksatta Party and author of National Health Mission, praises this move by an industrial association to draft a vision document on this subject.
The majority of health care expenditures in India are out-of-pocket costs, and 90% of Indians work in the unorganized sector without access to health insurance. Private insurance is not the solution to this problem, according to Dr. Narayan. Family health care in India is generally poor, and even though the USA spends one-third of its GDP on health care delivery, it is the worst in rich countries with high cost and low impact.
Tertiary medical care in India is overloaded, with hospitals like Osmania, Gandhi, and AIIMS seeing thousands of patients each day. Dr. Narayan suggests that patients should not be overcrowding specialist hospitals without utilizing basic medical facilities. Trained health care professionals are also lacking in India, with only 3.2 million people employed in this field compared to 6.9 million in the USA.
India’s spending on health care is also very low compared to other significant economies, with only 1.01% of GSDP and even less for Telangana. However, Hyderabad has high success rates in medical procedures, performing about 200 bypasses and 200 new replacement surgeries every month. India is also emerging as a world hub for overseas healthcare, with nearly one million overseas people expected to spend $13.8 billion on treatment in India this year alone.
Dr. Narayan emphasizes the need for patient-centric family health care and the improvement of government medical colleges’ credibility. Dr. GVS Murthy, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, suggests focusing on affordability, accessibility, acceptability, accountability, auditability, and adaptability in a vision document for quality and affordable health care for all in Telangana.
