KEY TRENDS 

• Only 10% Indians have some form of health insurance, mostly inadequate***

• Hospitalized Indians spend on an average 58% of their total annual expenditure***

• Over 25% of hospitalized Indians fall below poverty line because of hospital expenses***

• One of the greatest worries is about the cost of health care. This is a realistic concern since 100 million people fall into poverty each year paying for health care. Millions more are unable to access any health care#

• Anaemia and malnutrition are still widespread among children and adults*

• Infant mortality continues to decline, dropping from 68 in 1998-99 to 57 in 2005-06 per thousand births*

• In NFHS-III, 62% of women with two daughters and no sons say they want no more children, compared with 47% in NFHS-II*

• Forty-five percent of women ages 20-24 were married before the legal age of marriage of 18 years during NFHS III (2005-06), compared with 50% during NFHS II (1998-99)*

• Kerala, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu that account for 18.8% of the country's population have health indicators similar to those in more developed middle-income countries such as Venezuela, Argentina and Saudi Arabia**

* National Family Health Survey III (2005-06), http://www.nfhsindia.org/nfhs3.html
** Report of the Independent Commission on Development and Health in India (2008), Voluntary Health Association of India
*** Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, http://mohfw.nic.in/NRHM/Documents/Mission_Document.pdf
# 2008 World Health Report “Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever”, by the World Health Organisation