Hospitalization services cost the most in Gujarat among rural India
Among rural India, hospitalization services are the most expensive in Gujarat, costing Rs. 32,503 on an average per case. The services are the most pocket-friendly in rural Uttar Pradesh, where each hospitalization service costs about Rs. 7,242. Read on to know more about the health expenditure trends in India as analyzed by the National Sample Survey Organization between January 2013 to June 2014.
Despite unending controversies, hospitalization in Delhi most economical
At Rs. 7,737 per case, it is the most economical to get hospitalized in Delhi among Indian cities, reports TOI. Never mind the uncommonly bizarre cases of patients being fleeced exorbitantly (Fortis, Gurugram) and shoddy evaluation (Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh). By far, the services are most expensive in the towns and cities of Assam with each case costing Rs. 52,368 on an average.
The rural-urban divide
The National Health Profile 2017 also claims that one-third of all rural families and one in five urban Indian households take loans or sell assets to meet hospitalization costs. In rural India, 65.6% among the poorest and 68% of the richest people use their incomes/savings to meet hospitalization costs. The corresponding figures for cities are 68% for the poorest and 80% among the wealthiest.
Basic healthcare facilities inaccessible, unaffordable, especially for rural poor
Despite hospitalization costs of private centres being 2-9 times higher than public facilities, 61% rural and 69% of city patients preferred them in 2012. Poor patients getting hospitalized at a private centre spent about 44% of their monthly expenditure per treatment, against 23% for those using a government facility, claims a study by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
