Health expense pushes 63 mn Indians into poverty every yr

Unable to access affordable and quality healthcare is pushing 63 million Indians into poverty, each year. Despite long governance tenure, successive governments have not been able to increase spending on healthcare from 1.20 per cent to two per cent of GDP, said retired bureaucrat Dr Jayaprakash Narayan.

Addressing a multi-stakeholder roundtable conference here on Thursday, Dr Narayan, also the founder of Foundation for Democratic Reforms, said: “India spends only 1.2 per cent of its GDP on healthcare. We cannot expect any increase shortly. When people do not get basic facilities such as access to quality healthcare, they are not worried about economic growth, and that is reflected in the recent poll verdict, which is a cry of despair.”

Dr Narayan informed that among developed countries the US spends the highest on healthcare with 18 per cent of its GDP, while UK spends around 12 per cent.

“Professional regulation has failed in India. The Unions of these professionals are safeguarding their interests. India needs a well-conceived professional regulatory mechanism in place,” he added.

The conference, ‘Ethical Business Practices and Integrity in Healthcare through Collective Action,’ was organised by UN Global Compact Network India, a UN body, in collaboration with FTCCI, as outreach partner, and Kapiti Group, as knowledge partner.

Delivering keynote address, Dr Ratnesh Jha, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network India, said that this conference explores on how the stakeholders can make healthcare more accessible and less corrupt.

Dr Somnath Singh, Deputy Director, UN Global Compact Network India; Dr Suresh Kapiti, MD and CEO, Kapiti Overseas Pvt Ltd; Meela Jayadev, president, FTCCI; Ashok Singha, Senior VP, FTCCI, and Tarakeswari Polaki, Director, Kapiti Group, were present.