Abstract

ANALYSIS OF AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF QUALITY MEDICINE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

*Rajib Kumar Sah and Prof. Harvinder Popli

Abstract

India lags behind in providing 'Quality Healthcare for all' has been a key challenge for the Government in recent times. Under the Constitution of India both the Central and States Governments have concurrent duties for drug control, safety, quality and efficacy. The main objective of health policy is to achieve an acceptable standard of good health and ensure availability of quality medicines at a reasonable cost to the society and to promote development of domestic pharmaceutical industry. On the contrary, existing public health infrastructure is far from satisfactory and availability of essential drugs is minimal and capacity of the facilities is grossly inadequate. In India where patients die because they cannot afford the drugs that could improve, extend, or save their lives. Price is not the only reason why people do not get the medicines they need, but it is a major barrier. The high cost of many lifesaving drugs not only keeps patients from getting treatment, but also discourages health ministry from improving the quality of patient care through the use of newer and better medicines.

Keywords: Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Out-of-pocket, Expenditure, Healthcare, Quality, Cost, Medicine, Per-capita, Inadequate.