Medicines in India: Accessibility, affordability and quality

Healthcare expenditure is financed through various sources in a country. It can be financed by the government (state or union), insurance schemes (public or private) or borne by households directly in the form of out-of-pocket expenditures (OOPE). More financing by the government implies less financial burden on households in the form of huge out-of-pocket expenses. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) data on global health expenditures reveals that when it comes to out-of-pocket expenditure as a proportion of current health expenditure, India does much worse in comparison to the world average (65% for India versus world average of around 20% in 2016). A comparison with other Asian countries also reveals a similar scenario. Thailand and China have reduced the proportion of out-of-pocket expenditure over time, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh witnessed an increase over time.

The state-level scenario is not very different from the national picture which reveals that the burden of health expenses falls mostly on households. In the state of Bihar, out-of-pocket expenses are a whopping 80% of the total health expenditure. In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, OOPE forms three-fourth of the total health expenditure. Some states do relatively better, such as Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat, but even in these states, households bear almost half of the total health expenditure as OOPE.

OOPE warrants special attention as it leads to impoverishment, with 7% of the households falling below the poverty line on account of health expenses. OOPE has increased in both rural and urban areas with the expenditure attributable to medicines forming the single largest category. Medicines are an integral part of any medical treatment and the expenditure incurred on them is quite substantial. The share of medicines in OOPE was around 51% in 2013-14, this figure reduced to 43% in 2015-16, but still remained the biggest contributor to the OOPE incurred by households. Lastly, out of the total pharmaceutical expenditure incurred by households, 18% is for in-patient treatment while 82% is for out-patient care. These figures suggest that the cost of pharmaceuticals is an important area for policy intervention.

Registered Senior Citizens : 3000+ | Total Medicines Delivered : 45,00,000+ | Total Families Secured : 1500+
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