Towards a Fair Effective and Sustainable Health Care System for India

Newspapers carry frequent news about increasing government spending in health care and the availability of increasingly more specialised hospital care in India. While facilities in private and government hospitals have improved significantly, relatively little improvement has occurred in primary health care (PHC). India’s current hospital based health care system produces an unsustainable and spiralling health care expenditure on the Indian Government and poorer people. Sudden health care expenditure is already the most common cause of huge debts in poorer people. This article shows through case histories why this health care delivery system has to change and suggests what these changes should be. URL: [http://www.mfcindia.org/main/bgpapers/bgpapers2011/am/bgpap2011j.pdf]