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Too Much Care: Private Healthcare Sector and Caesarean Sections in India
Authors: Mitul Surana, and Ambrish Dongre
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, 55(35)
Topic(s): Cesarean section
Maternal health
Country: Asia
  India
Published: AUG 2020
Abstract: In the context of India where public expenditure on healthcare is low, the private sector plays an important role in delivering healthcare during childbirth. An analysis of the latest round of National Family Health Survey data to estimate the differential probability of caesarean sections in private medical facilities relative to government facilities, and focusing on unplanned C-sections, reveals that the probability of an unplanned C-section is 13.5–14 percentage points higher in the private sector. These results call for a critical assessment of the role of private sector in healthcare in the context of inadequate public provision, expanding private provision and weak governance structures.
Web: https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/35/special-articles/too-much-care.html