Inequity In Indian Health Care

This book addresses major aspects of inequity, such as access, financing, financial risk protection, gender, service delivery and utilization, in the healthcare sector in India,. Further, it discusses various measures for defining inequity in each of these aspects, and employs different indices for each dimension of inequity, which include financing, utilization, region, health outcomes, caste and class, and gender. The book covers both theoretical and empirical issues, examining fifteen major Indian States, as well as selected case studies at the district level. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, the book provides an overall view of the outcomes attributable to both economic development and policy changes per se. While providing essential data and insights for policymakers and researchers alike, the book also outlines further feasible policy changes that could potentially mitigate the current inequities in Indian healthcare. As such, it offers a valuable resource for upper graduate-level students in health economics, as well as for researchers and policymakers.

This timely contribution to the global literature on health inequities approaches the subject through a synthesis and analysis of relevant published literature on India. Amongst the BRICS countries, India ranks the lowest in the gender-gap index and has the highest poverty rate, and there is clear evidence that socio-economic inequalities have increased in India in the twenty-first century. These have direct impact on the health conditions of its people; however, there has been relatively little concerted research attention on health inequities in India. This volume fills the gap by synthesizing research evidence since the year 2000 on the topic. This is perhaps the first volume on this topic of such scope and breadth. Its uniqueness lies in the synthesis of evidence across a range of axes of disadvantages within a single volume: socio-economic position, caste, gender, other socially constructed vulnerabilities such as disability, HIV status, migrant status; and health-system factors contributing to or mitigating inequities in health. Each core chapter not only summarizes research findings but also engages critically with the perspectives reflected in the chapters and proposes a framework for understanding the mechanisms through which health inequities result. This volume highlights and addresses research gaps in both methodology and content, and is valuable to researchers and students of public health and allied health disciplines, including the social sciences, and also to policy makers and donors.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

In Medical Tourism and Inequity in India, Kristen Smith explores Indian private hospitals and their role in the global healthcare service supply chain within various religious, social, cultural, historical, and economic contexts. Drawing on critical medical anthropology theories as well as health and human rights perspectives, Smith problematizes the assumed independence between the medical tourism industry, the commodification of the Indian healthcare system, and the local populations facing critical health issues, while highlighting the rapid transformation of healthcare services into merely another global commodity. For more information, check out A Conversation with Kristen Smith, author of Medical Tourism and Inequity in India: The Hyper-Commodification of Healthcare

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

The theme of this book is health outcomes in India, in particular to outcomes relating to its caste and religious groups and, within these groups, to their women and children. The book’s tenor is analytical and based upon a rigorous examination of recent data from both government and non-government sources. The major areas covered are sanitation, use by mothers of the government’s child development services, child malnutrition, deaths in families, gender discrimination, and the measurement of welfare.

Equity in health care is a basic human right, yet disparities in health and wellness exist across racial lines. Despite the fact that disparities in Indigenous People’s health are particularly dramatic, they are less well understood. This volume focuses on the American Indian, in whom disparities in health are particularly severe. In a disease-specific format, health disparities in the American Indian are identified and discussed, with an emphasis on causes and solutions. Edited by experts in healthcare disparities, one of whom is a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, this book focuses attention on the historically overlooked and underappreciated problem of inadequate healthcare for the American Indian and has relevance for Indigenous People’s health around the world. Of interest to all concerned with equity and inclusiveness in healthcare, it will be essential reading for physicians, public health workers, academics, and Indigenous People worldwide.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.