A Study on Awareness and Preferences of Customers - Bincy Baby - Bog

The importance of Health Care in modern day society can be gauged from the fact that good health is recognized as one of the fundamental rights of an individual. So much so, that out of the eight recognized millennium development goal of the United Nations, health finds its place in three of them (United Nations, 2000). The enormity of the health issues around the world especially in the developing and poor countries is well documented. A comparison of the basic health indicators clearly indicates that developed nations of the world, fare far better on Health Care provision and utilization, when compared to the developing nations. This is evident from the figures shown in the World Health statistics, released by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012. For example, in a developed country like Germany, the government shares 77% of all the national expenses made on health similar figures for a developing country like India stands at 30.3%. This shows that out of pocket expenditure on health care are extremely high in India and they have driven to poverty purely due to the huge medical expenses that are borne out of one¿s own pocket (Dug gal 2007).