Indians suffer huge out-of-pocket expenses on heart diseases

Indians and Chinese suffer "maximum" out-of-pocket expenditure due to acute heart diseases, a recent study published by World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
As per the survey, "60 per cent of uninsured and 20 per cent insured Indian patients spend 30 per cent or more of their annual household income on hospitalisation."
The study titled 'Catastrophic health expenditure after acute coronary events in Asia: a prospective study' which covered 9,370 respondents from seven countries (enrolled between June 2011 to May 2012) is the largest observational study of household economic burden associated with treatment of acute coronary syndromes in Asia.
Researchers from city-based Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) were national coordinator from India, which collected data from 48 hospitals and 1,635 respondents in the country.

According to the survey, in India, out-of-pocket expenses for an heart patient after being hospitalised was about USD 2,600 on an average.
"Asians on an average spend USD 3,237 in case of hospitalisation due to acute coronary diseases. The primary outcome i.E., catastrophic health expenditure, was assessed on the basis of whether a participant had incurred out-of-pocket treatment costs greater than 30 per cent of annual baseline household income," the report said.

Other countries surveyed included Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
"Because of large unisured population, the expense in India goes much higher compared to other countries. China has a smiliar expenditure figure," said Jitendra P S Sawhney, co-author and chairman, Department of Cardiology, SGRH.

"Our study also shows that the burden of out-of-pocket costs associated with treatment for acute coronary syndromes in Asia can be substantial, reflecting the limited financial protection available for hospitalisation for these conditions. It further reflects high rates of financial catastrophe particularly in China and India," he said.