Rama V. Baru. Private Health Care in India: Social Characteristics and Trends. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. Hardback. Indian Rs 295.00. 184 pages.

The provision of health care has been recognised as a fundamental human right. Consequently, developed countries incur heavy expenditures in the provision of health care facilities to their citizens. For example, Canada’s public expenditure on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 6.9 percent, Norway’s is 6.6 percent, the USA’s is 6.5 percent, and Japan’s is 5.6 percent. On the other end of the scale are the developing countries such as Niger, which spends 1.6 percent of its GDP on health, Mozambique 1 percent, Haiti 1.3 percent, and Senegal 1.2 percent. In South Asia, Pakistan spends 0.8 percent and India 0.7 percent of their GDP, respectively, on health provision.