Abstract

Promoting and protecting health is essential to human welfare and sustained economic and social development. While there are many ways to promote and sustain health, not all of them are within the confines of the health sector. The circumstances in which people grow, live, work, and age” strongly influence how people live and die. Besides, status of a country with respect to education, housing, food and employment also has considerable impact on the health condition of its population. Divided in four parts, part II presents health service as a product. Part III starts with analysis of the health status in India and identifies issues in the health sector in India. Based on the status analysis and review of health systems, part IV presents options for policy interventions in Indian context. Finally, part V presents conclusions and recommendations. It is advocated that preventive care needs to be given due significance while simultaneously contextualizing the healthcare needs in the real life conditions, such as related to employment, incomes, food security, environmental hazards, work conditions and housing, water and sanitation. Promoting health-seeking behaviour and perceptions of people is important to planning for healthcare.   

Key words: Market failure, government failure, health insurance, health financing.