Inequality Report 2021 : India’s Unequal Healthcare Story
Recently Oxfam’s report ‘Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story’ was released.
The report highlights how spending less on public health systems and supporting private healthcare has led to inequalities in access to healthcare in India. That is, there is a lot of inequality in the health care system in India.
Key Points:
- The report has found that states that are trying to reduce existing health disparities with higher health spending have fewer cases of COVID-19 than other states.
- The report states that states such as Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, which have been working to reduce inequalities over the past few years (especially in health disparities between the general category and the SC and ST population).
- On the other hand, in states like Assam, Bihar and Goa, where the GDP expenditure on health is high, the recovery rate of COVID has also been high.
- The Oxfam report has marked the state of Kerala as a success story in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The urban population has fared better than the rural population as medical expenditure per hospitalization has tripled between 2004 and 2017 making it very difficult for poor and rural households. As urban households depended on their savings whereas rural households were mostly dependent on credit.
- It is to be known that less than one third of the families of the country are covered under the insurance scheme of the government.
- The out-of-pocket health expenditure of 64.2 in India is higher than the world average which is 18.2%. The exorbitant health care costs have forced many into debt and their wealth.
- Although child immunization has improved, the rate of immunization of girls is still lower than that of boys. Children living in cities have better access to vaccination than children living in rural areas. There is also disparity in child immunization among the different income groups in the country.
Oxfam
- Oxfam was established in the year 1942.
- It’s headquarter is located in Nairobi, Kenya.
- It is a consortium of several philanthropic organizations that work on global poverty.
Source – The Hindu