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Health Care in India

The World Statesman website reports that the population in India is approximately 1.1 billion people. That's almost four times the amount of people in the United States, all of whom who need health care. India has a universal-like health-care system to attempt to keep up with the rapidly rising population.

  1. Responsibility

    • Health care in India is the responsibility of the 28 Indian states. In 1983, The Parliament of India created a national health policy as part of its constitution. Each state, according to the Indian constitution, is charged with raising nutrition levels, the standard of living and public health.

    Distribution

    • Rural health care is mostly run through primary health-care facilities. There is a tiered treatment system. The majority of cases are treated in these facilities, while more serious issues are dealt with in urban hospitals.

    Training

    • India produces more than 25,000 health-care professionals each year. There are more than 250 schools for doctors that train under Western-style medicine, while 400 schools teach the traditional Indian system. Despite the number of schools and professionals, the World Health Organization states that India has numerous vacancies for lab technicians, radiographers and other para-professional positions.

    Insurance

    • Although health care is technically available to all people for no cost, better-quality health care in India comes from private organizations. Insurance costs are typically too expensive for lower-class Indians. Of those who can afford it---upper- and middle-class citizens---about 50 percent have elected to take on both public and private health insurance in exchange for higher levels of health care.

    Major Problems

    • One of the largest problems with India's health-care system is the grossly uneven distribution of services and access among population classes. Middle- and upper-class Indians have significantly better access to emergency services and quality health-care centers, while the rural population lives in disease-ridden areas with poor access. An Oxford University study revealed that more than 1 million Indians die each year from inadequate health care, despite the high-quality doctors within the country. Eighty percent of specialist doctors live within urban areas where the upper-class people dwell, and 700 million Indians do not have access to their services.

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