| The last decade has been witness to the giant | | | | areas. In the private sector, healthcare |
| strides taken by the Indian healthcare | | | | facilities are owned and run by for-profit |
| scenario, towards modernization and | | | | companies and non-profit or charitable |
| development- gone are the days when those who | | | | organizations. |
| could afford it had to travel abroad to get | | | | |
| highly specialized services such as cardiac | | | | In the earlier era, the high custom duties |
| surgery, while others had to do without it. | | | | imposed by the government on imported medical |
| | | | equipment was a big deterrent to set up |
| Today, patients from the developed Western | | | | private hospitals offering specialised |
| nations are coming to India to receive | | | | medical care using state of the art |
| specialized medical treatment. Not only is | | | | equipment, usually imported from abroad. As a |
| India meeting international standards, but at | | | | result, there were very few privately run |
| prices that compare very favorably with | | | | large hospitals but there were many small |
| developed countries. | | | | private practitioners who provided primary |
| | | | and secondary care. |
| In India, healthcare is delivered through | | | | |
| both the public healthcare system and the | | | | The low level of medical insurance was |
| private sector. The public healthcare system | | | | another major problem faced by the private |
| consists of healthcare facilities run by the | | | | hospitals - not having insurance meant that |
| central and state governments, which provide | | | | the patients had to pay for the treatment |
| services free of cost or at subsidized rates | | | | from their own pockets and not everyone could |
| to low-income families in rural and urban | | | | afford the high costs of private healthcare. |