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Life in India differs greatly from life in the United States. As a nation with one of the highest populations on the planet, the average Indian citizen has a difficult time accessing basic necessities like health care.
According to a recently published Forbes article, the average rural Indian household makes around 83 dollars a month. These low wages are slightly balanced out by the considerably low cost of living in India; India is commonly ranked as one of the countries with the lowest cost of living in the world. According to a UPenn article published in 2019, “India has the world’s largest rural population and the world’s largest population in poverty” (Jagasia). With these facts in mind, it’s not hard to imagine that access to healthcare is heavily affected.
Before delving deeper into the issues surrounding healthcare in India, it’s necessary to understand how healthcare works there. Healthcare is divided between the private and public sectors. The public sector is largely accessible (being funded by taxes) and is controlled and regulated by the government. The private sector, which comprises the vast majority of care, is highly unregulated and usually isn’t covered by insurance.
According to Jagasia, India’s rural populations (comprising 70% of the total population) have less access to care than urban populations despite having a greater number of government hospitals. This is because, while there are more facilities in rural areas, the total dedicated space for care in these facilities comprises less than half of the overall space for care across the nation. So, with government hospitals covering such a small area (in terms of patients) rural citizens must turn to the private sector to receive treatment (where insurance is unlikely to be accepted).
This reduction of treatment capability in government hospitals combined with the lack of government support (monetarily and otherwise) has led to a massive decrease in affordable care. In fact, Jagasia states, “out-of-pocket [OOP] expenses push 7% of the population into poverty each year” and “From 2000 to 2015, OOP payments in India have averaged around 69% of total healthcare expenditures” (Jagasia). These numbers make it apparent that affordable healthcare is difficult to come across in India.
For context, “total healthcare expenditures in the US increased from 13.3 to 17.8% of GDP over the same time frame” (Jagasia). In addition, out of pocket expenses in the U.S. only represent 10 to 20 percent of spending. These numbers are indicative of the fundamental differences in approach between India and the U.S. Were the Indian government to respond properly to their healthcare problem by increasing government spending and reducing out of pocket spending, India would likely see a much more accessible healthcare system.
Sources:
Jagasia, Arnav, and Anika Jagasia. “Healthcare in India: The Challenge of Demography.” Wharton Public Policy Initative, UPenn, 2019, publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/2907-healthcare-in-india-the-challenge-of-demography.
Worstall, Tim. “India's Real Poverty Wages: At $1.66 An Hour There's No Such Poverty In America.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 4 July 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/07/04/indias-real-poverty-wages-at-1-66-an-hour-theres-no-such-poverty-in-america/#1904612f33ab.