By IANS
New York : Healthcare experts from India and the United States will meet here Nov 19-20 to identify common concerns and make policy recommendations for the two countries and to strengthen cooperation in the sector.
“Affordability of Health Care in India and the US: Is privatisation the problem or the solution?” will be attended by thought leaders from India and the US who will discuss issues critical to the coordination of public policy and firm-level strategies in both the countries, a statement from the organisers said Sunday.
“India’s emergence as a preferred high-quality and low-cost supplier in the global healthcare industry may help the US lower its healthcare cost, while the US may help India in developing the skills and capabilities of its workforce,” the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) statement added.
The New Delhi-based ORF and New York’s Asia Society are jointly organising the event that comes at a time when the health industry in both India and the US is undergoing an unprecedented change in this age of globalisation.
The US is expected to spend up to 20 percent of its GDP on healthcare by 2015. Yet one in four workers remain uninsured. This crisis in healthcare access also extends to the majority of the population in fast developing India.
With public spending contributing a mere 20 percent of India’s total healthcare cost, up to 60 percent of individual income goes toward health-related expenses.
“Growing affluence of its middle class, increasingly susceptible to illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, demands better quality healthcare and creates new opportunities for state-of-the-art facilities and services.
“These parallel developments underscore the increased potential for partnerships in healthcare between the US and India,” the ORF statement said.
The event will have presentations on topics such as partnering in drug discovery, generic production and marketing, biotech and regulation besides a public programme focusing on the seminar theme.
A white paper will be disseminated to policymakers of both countries after the conference.
The featured speaker is Arnold Relman, professor emeritus of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine 1977-1991, and author of “A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care” (2007).
Falguni Sen, professor at the Fordham University in the US, has conceptualised the conference.
ORF trustee and former ambassador to the US Abid Hussain and Rakesh Basant, an economist and member of the Sachar Committee on the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in India, will represent the foundation at the event.