Das Gupta research cited in Gorakhpur tragedy story
The death of 30 children in a government-run medical center is a symptom of the Indian government's "abysmally low public spending on health care," according to an editorial on the LiveMint website. In addition, a dearth of training medical professionals and a large segment of uninsured individuals has made the country's poor exceptionally vulnerable, the article noted. The authors cite Faculty Associate Monica Das Gupta:
"Monica Das Gupta, a research professor at Maryland Population Research Center, has pointed out in a research paper that voters typically prefer public funds to be used to provide private goods (such as medical care), rather than public goods (such as sanitation measures to protect the health of the population as a whole). The non-democratic regimes of East Asia achieved better outcomes by directing scarce resources on public healthcare measures rather than on providing advanced medical care.
"Harsh, but true."