Compared to a rural household, an urban household spends five times more on diagnostics, 2.6 times more on medicines and 2.4 times more on doctors' fees.
Private Healthcare Can't Improve Public Health in India
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said that there was a costly misunderstanding that in India private healthcare can improve public health.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said that there was a costly misunderstanding that in India private healthcare can improve public health.
‘Compared to a rural household, an urban household spends five times more on diagnostics, 2.6 times more on medicines and 2.4 times more on doctors' fees.’
Around 55 per cent of inpatient (IPD) care is from private hospitals, it added. Ravi, however, noted that dependence on private healthcare is declining.
"Indian households' dependence on public care has risen by 6 percent for OPD care and by 7 percent for IPD care," she said.
Private Top-Up Insurance Could Prevent the Declining Healthcare Standards in the NHS
Private top-up insurance could help prevent the declining healthcare standards in the NHS, argues Christopher Smallwood.
Private top-up insurance could help prevent the declining healthcare standards in the NHS, argues Christopher Smallwood.
The study is co-authored by Rahul Ahluwalia and Sofi Bergkvist.
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Rise in Healthcare Costs Linked to Water-Related Infections
More than 617,000 hospitalizations related to three common plumbing pathogens between the years 991 and 2006, resulted in around $9 billion in healthcare cost.
More than 617,000 hospitalizations related to three common plumbing pathogens between the years 991 and 2006, resulted in around $9 billion in healthcare cost.
"There are large disparities across rural and urban households in terms of real out of pocket expenses for IPD such as doctor's fees, medicines and diagnostics.
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Regular Exercise can Help Reduce Annual Healthcare Cost
Patients who regularly exercised at recommended levels logged average healthcare costs more than $2,500 lower than those who didn't meet exercise guidelines.
Patients who regularly exercised at recommended levels logged average healthcare costs more than $2,500 lower than those who didn't meet exercise guidelines.
Her study noted that the rural-urban differences were very small in 2004 with absolutely no difference in the average real expenditures on medicine per inpatient case.
During the panel discussion that followed, Regional Director of World Health Organisation Poonam Khetrapal said that health seeking behaviour of women is lower in India compared to men and they donot seek healthcare as much as they should.
"We need to address these gaps," she said. National Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam added that most people talk about women health during pregnancy.
"Good health needs to be lifelong and not just focused at the time of pregnancy," she said. She added that there is need to focus on traditional foods to maintain good health and one should not depend too much on processed food and additives like multi-vitamins for nutrition.
President of Public Health Foundation of India, K. Srinath Reddy, said that there is need to connect primary healthcare with secondary and tertiary healthcare to achieve better results.
"Many countries with even smaller percentage of GDP allocated for health (compared to India) have achieved better health indicators by focusing on primary healthcare. We need to look into that," he said.
Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation Secretary T.C.A. Anant said that there is need to use administrative data as well, along with household data, as is used in the study, to arrive at more realistic conclusions.
"There is also need to maintain pressure on authorities to ensure that quality of administrative data is improved," he said.
Source-IANS
