Report: The Indian Healthcare System's Current State and Future

This report examines the healthcare system in India, highlighting key challenges such as tight budgets and rising costs, with specific data on government spending and treatment expenses. It explores the government's role in providing and organizing healthcare services, including setting national health policies and implementing programs. The report also compares healthcare strategies between India and Australia, emphasizing opportunities for investment and the potential benefits of adopting policies like those aimed at reducing tobacco and alcohol consumption. Finally, it recommends increasing healthcare budgets, regulating pharmaceutical sales, and improving training programs to enhance the quality and accessibility of healthcare services in India. The report utilizes several sources to support its analysis.

Running head: HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN INDIA 1
Health Care System in India
Name:
Institution:

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1. a) Tightening budgets
Poor funding of the health care system in India has resulted in a health care crisis that
has continued for quite some time. In the 2017-18 budget, the government of India spent a
merely 0.3% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on family welfare and health, according to
the budget data, which was extraordinarily low (sector, 2015). This poor provision in the system
leads to a very high expenditure on health which quite a number of households can’t afford. But
according to the finance ministry of India, the reason for the low budget allocation is because of
the funds in the health sector that is unutilized which could be caused by delays sometimes and
also inadequate staff to plan for their use.
b) Increasing the cost of healthcare services
Treatment cost in India rose at a double-digit pace in growth over the past decade where
patients going to hospitals and private clinics have been presented with medical bills which are
very high (Finkel, 2013). This is as treatment cost varies across Indian states significantly where
in some states, a high proportion of patients seek medical attention in private hospitals where
they end up facing higher costs while in some states, many patients visit government hospitals
and end up paying less (Hough, 2013). Quite a number of government hospitals and health
centers in India are in bad conditions which forces a number of patients to turn to private
hospitals which raises the cost of treatment to most of the patients.

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2. The role of the government in healthcare
The Indian government has the responsibility of providing proper health facilities which
should be within reach to every patient even in the remotest places in the country. Also, the
government is responsible for delivering and also organizing health services to their residents.
They also ensure there is smooth running of various programs such as; medical education, drug
manufacturing quality control, family planning programs, food adulteration prevention program,
and national disease control (Sage, 2018). They are responsible for setting national health
policies which include; National Blood Policy, National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy,
the Indian Newborn Action Plan which was created in 2014, the National Vaccine Policy, the
Kangaroo Mother Care &Optimal Feeding of Low Birth Weight Infants in 2014, and many
others.
3. Healthcare strategies of India and Australia
Delivering healthcare in remote areas experience in Australia is synergistic with the
need for remote health in India. There many opportunities for healthcare infrastructure
investments in both rural and urban state in India. This is mainly attributed to the large pool of
medical professionals who are well-trained and also to low cost for delivery of health care
compared to Australia which has slightly higher treatment cost (Spil & Stegwee, 2016). The
Australian government has put in place key policies to limit tobacco and alcohol consumption
aimed at reducing the risk of chronic diseases among its citizens which is a strategy that could
help Indians if adopted. The Indian government has rolled out a database called Registry of
Hospitals in Network of Insurance (ROHINI) which has taken data analytics in the health sector

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to another level by preventing fraud and also through disease surveillance. This could be a very
important strategy as it could improve the Australian health care system if adopted.
Recommendations
For the Indian government to improve the health care system, it should increase their
budget on health care services as it will enable expansion of infrastructural developments in the
healthcare sector, which will, in turn, improve the quality of services. Secondly, the government
should regulate the sale and distribution of pharmaceuticals more which will ensure that
medications are availed even to the low-income people at prices that they can afford. They
should also improve training and education programs for healthcare givers which will lead to
high-quality services delivery to its population.

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References
Finkel, M. L. (2013). Health Care Cost Management: A Basic Guide. Journal for Healthcare
Quality, 19(5), 44-47. doi:10.1097/01445442-199709000-00009
Hough, D. E. (2013). Irrationality in Health Care: What Behavioral Economics Reveals about
What We Do and Why. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
Sage, K. (2018). International healthcare systems. International Journal of Healthcare
Information Systems and Informatics, 13(1), 23-30. doi:10.4018/ijhisi.20180101
Sector, H. (2015). Public and Private health sector in India. Bmj, 331(7528), 47-56.
doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7528.1339-b
Spil, T. A., & Stegwee, R. A. (2016). Strategies for Healthcare Information Systems. Strategies
for Healthcare Information Systems, 1-10. doi:10.4018/978-1-878289-89-6.ch001