Cost of COVID Treatment in India

 

The Economic Society (ECOSOC), St. Xavier’s College, organized a webinar on the subject “Cost of COVID treatment in India: Who bears the burden” as a part of the Economics Lecture Series which is an annual event of the Department of Economics.

The webinar was aimed at discussing the impacts of COVID-19 on the Indian healthcare system and to analyze who is bearing a major burden of the expenses in its treatment, the Government, or the citizens.

To provide a better perspective to the students, two very eminent speakers -  Prof. Indrani Gupta and Dr. Sakhtivel Selvaraj were invited.

Prof. Indrani Gupta is a Professor and Head, Health Policy Research Unit (HPRU) at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA , and a Masters in Economics from the University of Delhi.

Dr. Sakhtivel Selvaraj currently holds the position of Director, Health Economics, Financing and Policy, at the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi  and has a Ph.D. in Health Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Prof. Indrani Gupta focused more on the infrastructural and policy-based aspects of the pandemic. She stressed on the need for India to have a resilient public health care system and increase its production and preparedness in terms of the health infrastructure as compared to many other countries of the world. She also emphasized on the fact that the Government of India needs to make sure that it has sufficient medical supplies to cater the needs of the millions in the country and also it should work on a prioritized budget for the health care sector so that the production of medical resources can be effectively increased.

Dr. Sakhtivel Selvaraj focused on the financial aspects of the pandemic. He statistically analyzed the capability of the Indian government to fulfill the demand for healthcare infrastructure in the country and talked about the division of healthcare expenditure between the public and private domain which is 1/3 and 2/3 respectively. He also discussed the role of different states in bearing the medical costs of the citizens.

He emphasized the need for the Governments to increase their efficiency in dealing with the health-care needs of the people and also to bear the burden of the costs of COVID vaccines in the country. If the government doesn’t pay for the vaccines, a major section of our population might not be able to pay for it.

The webinar indeed helped the students to draw a true picture of the status of health-care infrastructure in India and broaden their perspectives around the same. The speakers also answered some intriguing questions by the participants. The session was concluded with a vote of thanks by the Head of the Department of Economics, Ms. Poorvi Medatwal.