The country is completely reforming its medical care quality, availability and reduce mortality.
India is in the midst of a massive health care overhaul that will become the largest in the world once complete.
The goal is to help to ensure health care is available to everyone in the country, not just the wealthy.
At the moment, the richest people across the country have ready access to health care. In fact, they can even experience the medical care they need in a luxury resort-style facility. The goal of the health care overhaul is to make sure that the poorest in the country will also be able to receive medical care.
They may not be headed to the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, where there are floor-to-ceiling French windows and chandelier lighting, but they will be able to see the right doctors and receive the help they need.
Still, it will improve the current situation in facilities meant for poorer members of the Indian population, where patients must share beds. Those beds consist of mattresses placed directly on the floor. Moreover, patients wait extreme lengths of time – weeks to months – for even the most basic care.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to conduct a complete health care overhaul.
Prime Minister Modi wants to change the fact that a person’s income dictates whether or not he or she will have access to good medical care. When he gave his annual Independence Day speech, he unveiled his intentions to launch the largest government health care program on the planet. Not only is it larger than what any other country has ever created, but it will also get started before the end of the year.
The intention is to begin the first parts of this medical care program ahead of the country’s next elections, which will occur in early 2019.
“Health care should be accessible and affordable,” said Modi earlier this year, reported NPR.
The country has some of the best hospitals in Asia even before the health care overhaul. Medical tourists arrive from around the world, including the United States, to receive some of the top care in the world. That said, they obtain the procedures for much less than what they would cost in their home countries.
However, the majority of the people in India don’t have access to this same care. In fact, up to 90 percent of the Indian population either don’t have any hospital access or are forced to head to government-run hospitals where: “They’re poorly staffed. Equipment there often doesn’t work. They have employees who sometimes don’t show up,” according to Center for Emerging Markets director and professional of international business, Ravi Ramamurti at Northeastern University.
“You may have to bribe every employee at every level of system. Medicines supposed to be provided for free are often not in stock. So if you really need care, you can’t be sure you’ll get it,” he added, underscoring the importance of the types of health care overhaul promised by Modi.
