The coronavirus crisis brought India's public health system to its knees. Scenes of hospitals running out of beds, and people searching desperately for life-saving oxygen or critical medical supplies for their loved ones hogged international headlines. The unfolding human tragedy laid bare the deep-rooted problems plaguing India's public health system after decades of neglect and underinvestment. The second surge of COVID-19 caused a national calamity the likes of which India has not seen since independence. The intensity of the second surge could be gauged from the simple statistic that it took India 12 months to reach 10 million recorded cases but just four months to hit 20 million. The virus spread rapidly due to complacency on mask wearing at religious festivals and political rallies that attracted large crowds in various parts of the country. For several decades, health systems in India have not received the respect and resources they deserve. Public financing of health stagnated around 1% of GDP and out-of-pocket expenditure on health was over 60% even in recent years. The US spent nearly 17% of its gross domestic product on public health care in 2018, while France and Germany spent more than 11% of GDP that year. The government has allowed the private health sector to grow by leaps and bounds, while the public sector has remained underfunded and underperforming. India's public health infrastructure was always broken. Those who could afford it have always relied on private hospitals for treatment, while the poor struggle to get even a doctor's appointment.
