India Public Finance and Policy Report

Description

Health crises plague most economies irrespective of their average per capita income levels, and this is largely due to chronic and repeated illnesses. Contextualizing this paradigm in India, India Public Finance and Policy Report: Health Matters is an attempt to discuss some of the most crucial issues faced by Indian health sectors and to examine alternatives for policymakers to provide affordable, reliable, and effective healthcare facilities to the people.

This report compares three government-run social health insurance schemes—the Swasthya Sathi Scheme, the Aarogyasri Community Insurance Scheme, and a community-based health insurance scheme—to examine their effectiveness in reducing households’ vulnerability to health shocks. Additionally, it brings to light the manipulation of health package deals by private hospitals to increase the amount patients spend on them. The report also estimates the inefficiencies across states and districts of India with regard to healthcare personnel and infrastructure. Moreover, the editors have put together a series of interviews with different stakeholders associated with the healthcare system, such as doctors, nurses, patients, and medical representatives, who discuss the problems that perturb this sector. Written in a lucid and non-technical language, this is a deeply researched theoretical and empirical commentary about healthcare and public polices in India.

About the Editors

Jyotsna Jalan is co-director, Centre for Training and Research in Public Finance, Kolkata, and professor, economics, the Centre for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta.

Sugata Marjit is distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India.

Sattwik Santra is assistant professor, economics, Centre for Training and Research in Public Finance, and Policy, the Centre for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta.

Contributors:

Arjun S. Bedi

Arpita Chakraborty

Sisir Debnath

Tarun Jain

Anagaw Derseh Mebratie

Pradeep Panda

van de Poel

Wameq Raza

Frans Rutten

Zemzem Shigute

Robert Sparrow

Revathy Suryanarayana

Getnet Alemu Zewdu

Koushik Kumar Hati

Kalyan Khan

Biswajit Mandal

Sandip Sarkar

Reviews

India Public Finance and Policy Report: Health Matters is an excellent report, analyzing the pressing (public) health policy issues in India, with high level of academic rigour, supplemented by robust data tables, yet very reader friendly. The book deals with a wide range of topics, including access and affordability of health services, government funded social health insurances, and the cost of medicines, each being highly relevant and topical. In ongoing discourse on ‘universal health coverage’, the policy makers—at both union and state levels in India—need an in-depth understanding of each of these issues to make informed policy choices to improve access, reduce inequities, and make health services affordable. This book will be a must read for anyone who wishes to get insight into current health challenges in India and desires to evaluate potential solutions. It would be immensely useful for policy makers, the academic community, as well as researchers of social policies, development, public health, and finance.

—Chandrakant Lahariya

Senior Public Health Specialist and National Professional Officer, World Health Organization, India

This is a timely volume analyzing the pros and cons of providing social insurance for affordable, reliable, and effective healthcare in India. The evidence-based economic perspectives offered by the authors are sure to be useful for researchers and policy makers of the field.

—Kajal Lahiri

Distinguished Professor of Economics, and Health Policy, Management & Behavior, University at Albany, SUNY

This is a very extensive and informative document. The amount of hard work gone into it by so many experts is quite evident.

—Satinath Mukhopadhyay

MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Endocrinology), FRCP (London), FAMS (India) Endocrinology & Metabolism, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, Kolkata

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes

List of Abbreviations

Overview

1. Social Health Insurance Schemes

Arjun S. Bedi, Arpita Chakraborty, Sisir Debnath, Tarun Jain, Anagaw Derseh Mebratie, Pradeep Panda, E. van de Poel, Wameq Raza, Frans Rutten, Zemzem Shigute, Robert Sparrow, Revathy Suryanarayana, and Getnet Alemu Zewdu

2. Inexpensive and Effective Healthcare?

Koushik Kumar Hati, Kalyan Khan, and Biswajit Mandal

3. Health Inefficiencies: A Statistical Profile

Sandip Sarkar

Statistical Appendix: A Compendium of Health-Related Statistics

Blogspeak: Cross-Section of Opinions among Different Stakeholders

About the Editors and Contributors