The overarching policy question in private expenditure on health that we should all be addressing is, "What must the government do to reduce the debilitating (financial) effects of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure of people?" A response to a comment (EPW, 21 November 2015) on the authors' earlier piece (EPW, 15 August 2015).

V R Muraleedharan

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

Journal	Economic and Political Weekly
Publisher	Economic and Political Weekly
ISSN	00129976
Open Access	No