Health insurance a predominant medium for achieving universal healthcare in India – A farfetched dream?

In India, there are two kinds of insurances - Social Health Insurance (e.g. Employees State Insurance Scheme) & Voluntary Health Insurance. Even after years of grappling with health insurances, 71% of the healthcare costs are borne by the households. CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme), ESI (Employees State Insurance) and private insurance providers are major participants but they often ignore the population that needs the healthcare insurance the most. 

Self Help Groups and NGOs extend a number of Community based health insurance schemes. However, this covers only less than 1% of the country’s population. ESIS and CGHS taken together constituted 41% of total spending on insurance. The government has rolled out various schemes like RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna) that cover population in informal sector but only the BPL (Below Poverty Line) and marginalized population. Still a large non-formal sector is there that is above the BPL but in dire need of health insurance as they are most susceptible to catastrophic health expenditures and fall below poverty line due to health expenditures. 

Antiprotozoal activity of flavonoids from Eupatorium arnottianum

Parasitic diseases caused by Leishmania and Trypanosoma species, known as neglected tropical diseases, are responsible for high mortality and morbidity rates in developing countries. Leishmaniasis is caused by more than 20 species of the kinetoplastid protozoanparasite Leishmania, which is transmitted to humans by species of phlebotomine sand flies. It occurs in 98 countries with 350 million people living at risk. According to the varied manifestations of the disease, leishmaniasis is classified into four clinical forms: visceral, mucocutaneous, diffuse or disseminated cutaneous, and cutaneous.