Like every year before the budget the Finance Minister is besieged with diametrically opposite demands from different segments of the industry. For example, the indigenous manufacturers ask for custom duty increases and the transnationals asks for its reduction. How will she decide? Frankly, it is not easy. Why? Because there is a lot of rhetoric and it is difficult to distinguish rhetoric from reality. And a single misstep costs the country. Fortunately, there are examples from the … [Read more...] about Heed Ricardo’s advice, cut medical devices tariffs
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Can price control create treatment Bias?
Levitt and Dubner in their book Freakonomics quote a medical study which found that obstetricians in areas with declining birth rates are much more likely to perform cesarean section deliveries than obstetricians in growing areas – suggesting that when incomes start falling doctors try to ring up more expensive procedures. This is an example of a treatment bias. Is it possible that the stent-price control could also be giving birth to treatment biases. (Just as a background – Stent … [Read more...] about Can price control create treatment Bias?
History of healthcare price control and its latest turn in India
Throughout history there have been many instances of governments wanting to control prices. In most of these instances, the often-well-intentioned price control has inadvertently hurt access or at least brought down the quality of the sector. The attempt to control prices of medical services is not new. It dates back to several millennia. The first medical technology was Religion. Because more than a couple of thousand years ago whenever a natural disaster occurred or a disease struck or … [Read more...] about History of healthcare price control and its latest turn in India
Navigating the Complexities of Medical Device Pricing: Insights from Pavan Choudary
In an exclusive interview with Arunima Rajan, Pavan Choudary, Chairman of the Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), discusses the pricing framework for medical devices, shedding light on its critical aspects and implications for the industry. What are the key considerations or factors that the NPPA should take into account while developing the new pricing framework for medical devices? Any price control has the potential to distort the market. Considering that the medical device … [Read more...] about Navigating the Complexities of Medical Device Pricing: Insights from Pavan Choudary
Elections 2024: Who do the cards favour?
Let us attempt to answer this question by looking at how the three determinants of socio-political existence, Wealth, Power and Status are configured today and how these could motivate individuals and groups to vote in 2024. Wealth: For the last 3,000 years of recorded history the world has swung between concentration of wealth and dispersion of wealth. Capitalism concentrates wealth due to differences in human abilities and through the advantage which accrues to the early winner. So, the rich … [Read more...] about Elections 2024: Who do the cards favour?
Modi, Kejriwal and Shivakumar: What is common among them? What do they augur for Indian Polity?
Their courage unites them. Their worldview divides them. They represent a changing tide in Indian polity. Before the likes of Modi and Kejriwal came on the scene, it was felt that in Indian politics the meek will continue to inherit the world. The genuflectors will be crowned. Note how those in the prime-ministerial fray bowed to the powers that be. Except Rajiv Gandhi who came on a sympathy wave, every prime ministerial aspirant stooped to ascend. Indira Gandhi too was known as the Goongi … [Read more...] about Modi, Kejriwal and Shivakumar: What is common among them? What do they augur for Indian Polity?