Can Health Technology Assessment (HTA) provide a solution to tackle the increasing health-care expenditure in India?

• Main Authors: Amit Dang, B N Vallish
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2016-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Public Health
• Subjects: Catastrophic payments; health insurance; health technology assessment (HTA)
• Online Access: http://www.ijph.in/article.asp?issn=0019-557X;year=2016;volume=60;issue=2;spage=138;epage=141;aulast=Dang

The private health-care system in India is effective but expensive. Due to the absence of a comprehensive and well-penetrated insurance scheme that caters to the majority of the Indian population, most of the private health care consultations are out-of-pocket (OOP), and this is pushing many people to poverty. In this article, we describe the concept of health technology assessment (HTA), and review its possible role in improving the health-care system in India. We additionally comment on its present status and possible role of its implementation in the Indian context.