Structure and Dynamics of Private Health Sector.

Implications for India’s Health Policy.

Authors: Prasanta Mahapatra, P. Sridhar, K.T. Rajshree

Publication Year: 2002

About the book:

Starting with the National Health Policy in 1983 private and voluntary organisations have received increasing mention in official documents. But specific policy towards the private health sector have been slow to emerge. Various factors have contributed to the recent interest in the structure and dynamics of private health sector in India. Fristly, the private health sector has grown in many parts of the country, particularly in the areas experiencing economic development. The economic reforms with its emphasis on privatisation have contributed to policy interest in private health sector. Public financing and private provision of health care is being talked about in this context. Private provision ofhealth services appears attractive when there are budgetary contraints for expansion of public healthservice sin the public sector. There is hope that private provision of health care will help ameliorate the need for increased allocation of public funds for health care and at the same time keep up expansion of services to meet growing demand from people. On the other hand, growth of private forprofit healthcare institutions in an unregulated arket has raised concerns about exploitation of consumers and quality of care. Concerns have also been raised about utilisation of tax concessions by the state and responsiveness private corporate health care institutions to the needs of poor.

Naturally many questions arise. How big is the private health sector? Do private health care institutions provide better quality care? Are they more efficient? Do they serve the poor? What's the role of the private health care providers elsewhere in the world? And many more. This book elucidates these issues, examinse and analyses evidence from within and outside India and seeks to answer at least some questions.

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