Srinath Reddy, Yasmine Rouai, Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Cicely Thomas, Tana Wuliji, Snow Yang, Pascal Zurn

With the Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010, the United States seemed closer than ever to achieving universal health care. However, repealing the act has been a key goal for the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, with the main arguments against it including the higher premiums for middle-class Americans and the abuse of government power through its control of the insurance industry. This volume helps define universal health care, explains the arguments for and against it, and discusses attempts to implement it on an international scale.

Srinath Reddy, Yasmine Rouai, Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Cicely Thomas, Tana Wuliji, Snow Yang, Pascal Zurn

Rising affluence is triggering an explosion in lifestyle diseases, driving spiraling growth in healthcare costs and loss of productivity. If this is not checked there is a serious danger of India not realising its economic goals. The provision of healthcare to all Indian citizens, regardless of ability to pay, is a must if we are to avoid this danger. This raises the question - is Universal Health Coverage (UHC) feasible for a large middle-income country like India? The authors have deconstructed the healthcare system as it exists today - wasteful, expensive, and inefficient - to propose an alternative model that is both affordable and high-quality. The ideas presented here may look outrageous when viewed through the prism of what has been the norm, but the authors demonstrate the feasibility of the changes they propose by providing concrete examples of how the changes would work. UHC is within India's means if the political will to implement radical change of the kind described in this book can be mustered. Health for all citizens is not an option but an imperative for a just and thriving republic.