Public health system across nations is a conglomeration of all organized activities that prevent disease, prolong life and promote health and efficiency of its people. Indian healthcare system has been historically dominated by provisioning of medical care and neglected public health. Public health funding has been directed to helping the middle and upper classes, as it targets creating more health professional jobs, expanding research institutions, and improving training. This creates unequal access to health care for the lower classes who do not receive the benefits of this funding.Today, states pay for about 75% of the public healthcare system but insufficient state spending neglects the public health system. In the context of universal health coverage, the recent policy focus in India, there is an attempt to ensure that every citizen should have adequate access to curative care without any financial hardships. Equally relevant is the acknowledgement of social determinants of health as an important determinant of population health and the need to have a public health cadre within the existing health care system. This call for a need to distinguish between 'Public health' system and 'Public' sector health care system as the latter uses public to indicate the primary role of government and not necessarily as population as used in public health.