Health financing in India - Public health forum

Health financing in India is a topic that affects every single one of us. Health is the core of each person’s being. Each one of us has struggled or knows somebody who has struggled to access affordable and good quality healthcare in our country. Even 77 years after independence India’s health system is struggling to cater to the needs of its people and what role health financing has played and continues to play in it.
In this forum discussion, three highly experienced and knowledgeable speakers help us understand how health is financed in India and what barriers it faces.

Dr Indranil: Dr. Indranil Mukhopadhyay is a public health specialist and a health economist. Indranil has a PhD in public health and health economics, M Phil in Public Health, and MA in Economics, all from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. Indranil is a visiting fellow at Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi. He has eighteen years of research and teaching experience in health economics and health care financing.

Sujatha Rao: Sujatha Rao, a 1974 batch IAS officer is a former Union Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In her 36 years of service as a civil servant, she spent 20 years in the health sector in different capacities at the state and federal levels. She was also Secretary Health in the state of Andhra Pradesh. She is the author of the book entitled “Do We Care? India’s Health System” – published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Rema Nagrajan: Rema is a journalist with The Times group and reports on development issues, and health-related topics. She was a fulbright scholar in 2005 and has expertise in data journalism. She is a loud voice keeping India’s health care system and health care providers in check. Her reporting on these issues has played a role in making it illegal for doctors to accept gifts from pharmaceutical companies in India.

0:00 - Introduction
04:16 - How is health financed in India? Is everyone paying to get free healthcare?
12:17 - Health is not a state subject
20:30 - Recent trends of central and state health financing in India
29:20 - Role of inflation in health financing
31:07 - Actual health spending in India is worse despite adjusting for inflation
36:11 - Why is the government not spending on health?
49:18 - Kerala Vs Bihar - why are there contrasting health systems in India?
56:23 - Role of health cess in health financing
59:30 - What the government is not telling us
01:06:15 - Where is our money going?
01:11:10 - Need for raising corporate taxes
01:11:40 - Need to empower to local government bodies
01:13:30 - Need of social movements to improve public health
01:15:05 - Role of NGOs and civil sector
01:19:00 - Need for better representation among policymakers
01:14:00 - The way forward