Articles by Sakthivel Selvaraj

Pursuing its neo-liberal agenda of decontrol and liberalisation, the present government is planning to move towards market-based pricing from the current cost-plus-based pricing mechanism for drugs under price control. By refusing to include fi xed dose combinations of essential medicines, sticking only to dosages and strengths involving essential drugs and leaving out "me too" drugs in similar therapeutic classes, the government is designing escape routes for companies to wriggle out of the price control mechanism.

This paper provides early and robust evidence on the impact of publicly-financed health insurance schemes on financial risk protection in India's health sector. It conclusively demonstrates that the poorer sections of households in intervention districts of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna , Rajiv Aarogyasri of Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu Health Insurance schemes experienced a rise in real per capita healthcare expenditure, particularly on hospitalisation, and an increase in catastrophic headcount - conclusive proof that RSBY and other state government-based interventions failed to provide financial risk protection. Therefore, the policy that is needed would aim to achieve universal health coverage of the population, moving away from the current trend of piecemeal, fragmented approaches, to providing a thrust for primary health care.