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Explained: When and where the sexual harassment law holds, against whom
| Availability | Accessibility | Affordability |
|---|---|---|
| ● Severe shortage of trained medical professionals—including nurses, dentists, and administrators—but especially doctors. ● The United States has 2.672 doctors per 1,000 people, and 3.1 hospital beds per 1,000 people. ● India, on the other hand, has a mere 0.599 doctors and 0.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people. ● Inequity in infrastructure: While the urban India is witnessing a mushrooming of world-class medical facilities, the rural areas are bereft of even basic healthcare facilities. ● Government should remove disincentives on health insurance. For example, indirect taxes on individual health insurance have increased from 12.5% to 18% over the last few years. GST on individual health insurance should be reduced. | ● As per 71st round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)- ○ 85.9% of rural households ○ 82% of urban households have no access to healthcare insurance. ● Currently, around 28-30% of population has some form of healthcare insurance. ○ About 3-4% have retail health plan and the rest is government sponsored schemes. ● Shortage of healthcare ecosystem- like hospitals and beds. Even majority of these are in urban areas. Beyond that, centres, including PHC centres aren’t registered. Ayushman Bharat will create this ecosystem in rural India. ● Quantum of health insurance have increased but largely limited to urban areas. In rural areas, people continue to spend from their own pockets. ● Competition Committee of India report on affordability stated that 50 to 65% of Indians did not have regular access to essential medicines. And this despite over 40% of the Indian pharmaceutical industry’s $33 billion worth of drugs being exported. | ● Affordability can be seen in two ways: medicine affordability and treatment affordability ● Huge borrowings to provide healthcare- Catastrophic healthcare related expenditure pushes families into debt, more than 24% households in rural India and 18% population in urban area have met healthcare expenses through some sort of borrowings. ● Ensuring affordable drugs is a necessary prerequisite for bringing down the overall healthcare expenses. Inflated trade margins and quality of medicines needs to be addressed. ● Medical Devices in India are not only largely imported but have high trade and manufacturing margins eventually hurting patients. ● High Out-of-pocket expenditure- WHO’s health financing profile for 2017 show 67.78% of total expenditure on health in India was paid out of pocket. The world average is 18.2%. |
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