Introduction
Healthcare has become one of India’s largest sector, both in terms of revenue and employment. Healthcare comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a brisk pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private players.
Indian healthcare delivery system is categorised into two major components – public and private. The Government, i.e. public healthcare system, comprises limited secondary and tertiary care institutions in key cities and focuses on providing basic healthcare facilities in the form of primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in rural areas. The private sector provides majority of secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care institutions with major concentration in metros and tier I and tier II cities.
India’s competitive advantage lies in its large pool of well-trained medical professionals. India is also cost competitive compared to its peers in Asia and Western countries. The cost of surgery in India is about one-tenth of that in the US or Western Europe. India ranks 145 among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare.
Market Size
The healthcare market can increase three-fold to Rs 8.6 trillion (US$ 133.44 billion) by 2022.
Indian medical tourism market is growing at 18 per cent y-o-y and is expected to reach US$ 9 billion by 2020. There is a significant scope for enhancing healthcare services considering that healthcare spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is rising. The Government’s expenditure on healthcare sector has grown to 1.6 per cent of the GDP in FY20BE from 1.3 per cent in FY16.
Health insurance is gaining momentum in India. Gross direct premium income underwritten by health insurance grew 17.16 per cent y-o-y to Rs 51,637.84 crore (US$ 7.39 billion) in FY20.
source:IBEF