How can India, with its vast, largely rural population, provide affordable healthcare to its people

Public health in India remains a matter of grave concern, in terms of public expenditures on healthcare. The lack of adequately funded public health services pushes large number of people to incur heavy out of pocket expenditures on the services purchased from private sector. The aim of present study is to review the current scenario of healthcare services in India and government initiatives towards their solution. The results show that while the private sector can continue to operate for those who can afford it, an expansion of good quality affordable public sector care is essential. As supply in the public sector increases, it will cause a shift towards public sector providers freeing the vulnerable population from dependence on high cost and often unreachable private sector health care.