All about India

India spends 1.2% of its GDP on publically-funded health care, which is relatively little compared to other countries. However, as a percentage of GDP, total spending of health care is as high as 4.2%. This means that majority of health care in India is spent by out-of-pocket spending. While the total per capita health care spending is $132, the government only spends $39 per person (Hegyi, N.A.).

Because of inadequate funding from the government, there has been a significant increase of health care facilities in the private sector over the years, mostly high-end. This creates the problem of affordability of health care in India This accentuates the socio-economy inequality in India, as the poorest of the population, the very people who require these health care services are unable to afford health care, causing them to either be unable to seek necessary treatment, or be pushed deeper into poverty due to high costs. Not only this, the high out-of-pocket costs worsen poverty, pushing an additional average of 39 million people into poverty every year (Hegyi, N.A.). To learn more about poverty in India, click here.