HEALTH STRUCTURE IN OUR COUNTRY
HEALTH STRUCTURE IN OUR COUNTRY AND THE ROLE OF GENERIC MEDICINES India is the largest supplier of generic drugs in the world, and Indian pharmaceutical companies have famously succeeded in pushing down the cost of medication in many countries across the world. Yet, too many Indian citizens do not get access to medicines owing to high costs . The preferred solution of the government right now— price control —is suboptimal. The problem starts with the thin insurance cover that leads to most patients paying for medical expenses out of their pockets after they have been diagnosed with an ailment. The latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey on healthcare, in 2014, shows that 86% of the rural population and 82% of the urban population were not covered under any scheme of health expenditure support, and that medicines are a major component of total health expenses—72% in rural areas and 68% in urban areas. Healthcare costs pushed 60 million Indians below the
