Mumbai, 9 Aug: Every year 3.2% of Indians fall below the poverty line because of high medical bills. This was revealed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
It states that almost 70% of Indians spend their entire income on health care and purchasing medicines.
Medicines, which comprise 15% to 75% of the total health care costs, are a key concern due to the vast difference in pricing between brands of the same medicine and the low awareness among consumers.
Consider this.Two brands of similar sized ready-to-cook noodle pack costs Rs10. Different brands of 200 ml mango juice sell at the same rate of Rs12. But the price difference between brands of an antibiotic of the same composition can be as wide as Rs60 or even a whopping Rs6,800 when it comes to brands of the same cancer medicine.
Medicines are the only product category where buying decisions are taken by doctors who write prescriptions and chemists who dispense them. Thus the price differences lead to patients being prescribed and dispensed costlier brands despite the availability of cheaper options.
Doctors and chemists will recommend brands belonging to those manufacturers who load them with perks and commission," said a New Delhi-based general physician.
Consumers then end up spending more. Like banker BR Rashmi in Bangalore, who had to pay around Rs200 more for six tablets of the antibiotic co-amoxyclav (625mg). As per her family doctor’s prescription, she ended up buying the medicine for Rs263 despite other brands costing less than Rs70 in the market.
"Most costly medicines are branded and command a premium, though their quality and composition is the same as the non-branded ones," said an expert. He added that there are reference applications on the website, using which, consumers can compare prices of different brands of medicines and also check their composition. Apart from this, even websites like medguideindia.com and medindia.net can help you compare and check the prices of medicines.
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