The onset of the coronavirus outbreak in India has brought forth several pressing issues our nation has been long struggling to reform. The gender wage gap, the plight of the destitute migrant labour force of our country, a struggling education system and a slowing economy amongst several other issues. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has once again thrown the light on India’s healthcare system.
A Dismal Picture
India has been ranked at a low 110th out of 141 countries on the health index by the World Economy Forum in 2019.[1] The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its report on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), finds that only about 10% of the poorest one fifth in India’s rural (10.2%) and urban (9.8%) areas have any form of private or government healthcare. India’s extortionate private healthcare system is neither accessible to the needy and at-risk patients in rural areas nor is it affordable to the thousands of daily wage labourers in the urban sectors.
Exorbitant pricing and high margin profit-oriented business models followed by most private practitioners and pharmaceutical companies keep private healthcare out of reach of the poor and the needy and push already high poverty rates even higher.[2] According to Oxfam India, 7% of Indians fall below the poverty line due to healthcare spendings and 23% of sick people cannot even afford healthcare. The numbers are staggering, 55 million people are pushed into poverty every year due to healthcare expenses, and 38 million fall below the poverty line due to spendings on medication alone.
I belong to a middle-class Indian family and I am privileged to be able to afford insurance and healthcare. Despite this, before seeking medical care for any ailment, we wonder whether to risk further infections at a government hospital or fancy paying another inordinate bill. We continue to pay for our daily tablets because we can and because we do not have an alternative, but to what extent?
Rural vs. Urban
While the Ayushman Bharat Yojna is a step forward and shows promise, it is highly ambitious and faces several challenges and hurdles before it reaches its goals. Many benefactors of this scheme, especially the tribal communities, remain unaware of its very existence. Rural sectors continue to lack access to basic health care, and due to the business-oriented approach followed by private hospitals, most of these hospitals don’t look beyond the urban sectors. Testing and pharmaceuticals need to be made affordable and accessible and wide reforms are needed in the public and private sectors to develop a comprehensive public health care system in India.
The Future
India’s expenditure on public healthcare has almost doubled over the past 5 years, yet it remains a meagre 1.29% of its gross GDP.[3] These numbers paint a dreary picture of the future of public health care in India. Between pricy private hospitals and run-down government hospitals with endless queues, Indians are running out of options. These appalling conditions, with the coronavirus toll mounting every day, only reinforces the immediate need to have wide reforms across multiple departments and the need for stringent legislation to make healthcare accessible and affordable to one and all. Quality healthcare is also a function of equity. While the PMJAY scheme attempts to tackle economic equity, on ground translation of the scheme has been lax. Robust and adaptive policies, aided by growing technology and judicial use of India’s resources and quality accreditation and accountability will help the Indian healthcare system to grow in the longer run.
Unfortunately, neither these numbers nor the narrative is borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic alone but has been a sorry tale for decades. Most alarming is that despite the pandemic, the pricing plans in posh private hospitals remain the same and while we stand in solidarity with our doctors and nurses, these numbers fail to find mention in Instagram stories and Whatsapp forwards. While ‘#boycottChina’ rages in every corner, India’s affordable healthcare remains only a promise.
Article by-
Ahan Bose,
In charge - Training and Development,
PES MUN Society
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