3 ms·
80% of the population is uninsured [1]. They go to underresourced government or religious-charity run hospitals when severely ill but otherwise have limited ac
by danans 7y ago
80% of the population is uninsured [1]. They go to underresourced government or religious-charity run hospitals when severely ill but otherwise have limited access to medical care by western standards.
The upper middle class increasingly have insurance like people in the US, and the very wealthy pay for treatment directly. Both groups seek care at private hospitals that have equipment and staff that would rival those in wealthy countries - often set up and funded by Indian physicians abroad.
My family have to invested in such hospitals and I have toured them. No doubt they do charitable work on the margins, but they likely can't scale to a pandemic.
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_India https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_India
- hiyer 7y agoThere is a pseudo-insurance scheme called Ayushman Bharat[1] which is freely available for people below a specific income limit. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayushman_Bharat_Yojana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayushman_Bharat_Yojana
- legolas2412 7y agoThat is however extremely underfunded, and has high rates of fraud.
- danans 7y agoIt's also very new (started in September 2018), so it probably has nowhere near the institutional strength or depth (to say nothing of the funding) to deal with a pandemic of this scale. According to the wiki page: "It covers 3 days of hospitalisation and 15 days of post hospitalisation, including diagnostic care and expenses on medicines." 3 days of hospitalization even with the best facilities is probably nowhere near enough for a serious COVID19 case. Then again, health insurance providers in the US also recently balked quite strongly at the US administration's suggestion that they cover the full cost of COVID19 treatment, including co-pays: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trump-is-wrong-about-insurers-covering-coronavirus https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trump-is... How this all is paid for - and the delicate question about who has the right to the best treatment (those who can pay?) - are big issues that will soon be faced by health services and governments in all societies, whether wealthy or developing.