Times of India
July 27 2004

You ain’t well? Suffer and die
SHIVANI SINGH & AMIT MUKHERJEE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2004 08:55:08 PM ]

NEW DELHI: Here is a shocking nugget of information: in terms of
public spending on health, India ranks 171st out of 175 countries for
which data is available in Human Development Report 2004.

In contrast, it ranks an impressive 18th in terms of private spending
on health. It is hardly surprising then that the doctor ki dukan is
thriving. Nor should it be a secret any longer why the poor have not
bought the argument that reforms are about pulling public money out
of unproductive investments and deploying it in the social sector.

Public spending on health in India is a mere 0.9 per cent of the GDP.
There are only four countries – Nigeria, Indonesia, Sudan and Myanmar
— which spend less. In China, with which India is often compared,
the government spends two per cent of GDP on health and even Nepal
(1.5%) and Bangladesh (1.6%) spend more on health. Only Pakistan (1%)
in this region does almost as badly as India.

The picture is quite different when it comes to private spending on
health. Only in 17 countries does private expenditure as a percentage
of GDP exceed the 4.2 per cent figure for India. Those who spend more
than Indian include the US, Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil, Kenya,
Cambodia, El Salvador, Armenia, Bosnia and Cyprus.