"High out-of-pocket expenditure is obviously a barrier to achieving UHC and unless we take steps to reduce it, I don’t see how we can achieve UHC. Even within current tax-to-GDP ratios and allocations towards healthcare, we can do much better by shifting government expenditures to healthcare. This requires however, moving expenditures from other categories, which I see as a challenge. Related to this is the issue of citizen concern and demand around healthcare. Although many Indians fall into poverty each year because of catastrophic health expenditures, we really don’t see the level of electoral demand for universal health care that puts pressure on elected officials to rethink health as a priority item," says Neela Saldanha, Executive Director, Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE), Yale University | 
