Healthcare Insurance in India

The health care system in India is characterised by multiple systems of
medicine, mixed ownership patterns and different kinds of delivery structures.
Public sector ownership is divided between central and state governments,
municipal and Panchayat local governments. Public health facilities include
teaching hospitals, secondary level hospitals, first-level referral hospitals (CHCs
or rural hospitals), dispensaries; primary health centres (PHCs), sub-centres,
and health posts. Also included are public facilities for selected occupational
groups like organized work force (ESI), defence, government employees
(CGHS), railways, post and telegraph and mines among others. The private
sector (for profit and not for profit) is the dominant sector with 50 per cent of
people seeking indoor care and around 60 to 70 per cent of those seeking
ambulatory care (or outpatient care) from private health facilities. While India
has made significant gains in terms of health indicators - demographic,
infrastructural and epidemiological (See Tables 1 and 2), it continues to
grapple with newer challenges. Not only have communicable diseases
persisted over time but some of them like malaria have also developed
insecticide-resistant vectors while others like tuberculosis are becoming
increasingly drug resistant. HIV / AIDS has of late assumed extremely virulent
proportions. The 1990s have also seen an increase in mortality on account of
non-communicable diseases arising as a result of lifestyle changes. The
country is now in the midst of a dual disease burden of communicable and
noncommunicable diseases. This is coupled with spiralling health costs, high
financial burden on the poor and erosion in their incomes.