Given the states’ ability to raise new revenues are limited, the onus of any significant growth in public health spending rests largely on the Centre. Fixing the public healthcare system needs nothing short of a war cry. They lose wages, a loss that is compounded by healthcare costs that a dysfunctional public healthcare system fails to take care of. As the public healthcare system slipped from bad to worse, the business of health has flourished during the same period, making India’s private healthcare industry among the most profitable and fastest growing in recent years. It is time policy makers and political parties stopped treating public spending on health as just welfarism.

Source: Hindustan Times August 20, 2017 01:49 UTC