Understanding public drug procurement in India: a comparative qualitative study of five Indian states.

Figure 1 shows a decreasing trend in the supply of free medicines since 1986 and also a corresponding increase in the number of people not receiving any medicines at all for outpatient care. 3–5 Private health expenditure constitutes almost 70% of the total health expenditure of which drugs form a massive component with anywhere between 20% and 65% in India and other transitional economies compared with 18% in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. 6 The burden of purchasing medicines is very high in India, accounting for the second largest bulk of expenditure after food.

also in 47,180 other papers