New Delhi: India faces health care challenges, including a decline in the role of public delivery of health services, high out-of-pocket (OoP) expenses of households and accessibility and affordability of medical care, according to the second volume of the Economic Survey 2016-17, which called for a mandatory shift to generic drugs. “India has emerged as the country with the largest OoP expenditure on health, among BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economies, consistently higher at more than 60% since 2008. While in developing countries like Brazil, the percentage of OoP expenditure is less than 32%, in South Africa, it is less than 10%,” the survey said. “The higher OoP expenditure on health leads to impoverishment of poorer sections of society and widens inequalities. The survey emphasized that it is necessary to expand provision of quality public health services to low income groups to prevent the impoverishment of large sections of the population owing to ill health.

Source: Mint August 11, 2017 20:15 UTC