Aparna's Health Foundation

The demographic composition of India’s large population poses a challenge for the country’s healthcare system. About 70% of India’s population lives in rural areas, making it harder for these people to access care compared to those who live in urban areas. For example, while 84% of the 23,582 government hospitals in India – as of 2017 – are in rural areas, these rural hospitals only hold 39% of total government beds.As such, India’s significantly larger rural population has less access to inpatient facilities and care. In fact, a 2012 McKinsey report on healthcare in India found that “the urban rich access healthcare at a rate that is double that of the rural poor and 50 percent more than the national average.” Increasing access to care in rural areas is notably difficult due to the lack of infrastructure and medical professionals. In fact, India has a significant shortage of trained physicians nationwide as the WHO recommends a physician to population ratio of at least 1:1000, but India has a ratio of only 1:1674.

Though USA is the richest nation in the world but access to healthcare for the poor is also a challenge in the country. Health care inequality is when one group of people in an economy is in much worse health than another group. In the United States, health inequality is correlated with income inequality. Research has found that the higher your income, the better your health. As a result, those with corporate-sponsored plans have better access to health care than those who didn't. Before the Affordable Care Act, almost 25% of Americans had little or no health insurance. As a result, over 101,000 of them died each year because they couldn't afford the high cost of health care.

Others found their savings were wiped out, they lost their homes, and incurred credit card debt. The economy suffered, since half of all bankruptcies were caused by high medical costs.