Page 38 - Htain Manual

T
he Government of India is committed to extend healthcare services to its 1.3

billion population as part of India’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda.

Given the constraints in resources, it is a challenge for the government to

devise ways to reduce catastrophic health expenditure and ensure affordable access to
essential health care for the entire population. The magnitude of the problem can be

estimated from the fact that in 2014-15 National Health Accounts Estimates for India reported

that the out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health by households was 62.6% of the total health
expenditure of the households which was as high as 2.4% of the GDP per capita.

The paradox is that despite having one of the lowest public health expenditures in the world,

India is the hub for production of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices. In a context of

financial protection and regulation in health systems, this has an inflationary effect on health
care costs. Extending adequate healthcare services to the population requires absorption and

rational utilization of these technologies to ensure that the greatest amount of health is

produced for every rupee spent. Health Technology Assessment (HTA), which is a widely used

methodology internationally for optimization of resource allocation in health can help with

this

To facilitate the process of transparent and evidence informed decision making in the

field of health, Government of India has created an institutional arrangement called the

Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) under the Department of Health Research

(DHR). HTAIn is entrusted with the responsibility to collate and where needed generate
evidence related to the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of medicines,

devices, vaccines and health programs using the Health Technology Assessment (HTA)

approach. HTAIn will enable policy makers to decide on appropriateness and cost
effectiveness of the available and new health technologies in India, so that people can have

access to quality health care at affordable costs.

Activities of HTAIn

 To support the process of decision-making in health care at the Central and State
policy level by providing reliable information based on scientific evidence.

 Develop systems and mechanisms to assess new and existing health technologies by

a transparent and inclusive processes.

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