The Compromised Healthcare Sector of India and Other Southeast Asian Countries

Abstract

This chapter aims to focus on the umpteen challenges in the healthcare sector of India which temper the possibility of partnerships with India and the 10 Southeast Asian countries. India's expenditure on the healthcare sector is only 1% of GDP, less than neighboring ASEAN countries. The Indian Government has privatised the healthcare sector. In the second wave of COVID-19, public and private hospitals are operating at full capacity with shortages of life-saving medicines, oxygen, ventilators, and vaccines. Lower middle-income groups and the poor are suffering the most. Nations of the world, medical scientific community, and pharmaceutical companies put their resources together to discover a vaccine for coronavirus within a year. To have an effective and sustainable model of doing business in healthcare, it is important to have partnerships and integrating best practices and innovations for improving and providing equitable and affordable access to healthcare.