Families in distress: Latest NFHS findings paint bleak picture
3 years ago

Families in distress: Latest NFHS findings paint bleak picture

The Hindu  

Towards the end of November 2021, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released two interesting documents. The report on NHA claimed that the share of the government’s health expenditure in the total gross domestic product increased from 1.15 per cent to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18. Likewise, it said, the share of total government expenditure in total health expenditure had risen to 40.8 per cent from 28.6 per cent. This also meant that 59 per cent of households in India did not have a single member covered under a health insurance or health financing scheme, implying a high out-of-pocket expenditure on health care. In the ongoing winter session of Parliament, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health, informed the Rajya Sabha that the share of the government’s health expenditure had risen to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18.

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History of this topic

Hospital beds, specialists: Why health takes centre stage in Maharashtra's poll promises
1 month ago

Hospital beds, specialists: Why health takes centre stage in Maharashtra's poll promises

India Today  

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 has a flood of poll promises in the field of healthcare. The National Profile 2023 shows that Maharashtra has the lowest number of government hospitals in terms of per capita population and the number of beds for every lakh population in the state is almost equal to that in Bihar. While Himachal Pradesh has 222 beds …

The burden of health care on India’s poorest
4 months, 1 week ago

The burden of health care on India’s poorest

Hindustan Times  

In recent years, the Indian government has made significant strides in reducing the burden of health expenditure on the common citizen. A particular focus of the government has been to reduce the burden of severe economic shocks due to “catastrophic” health care expenditure such as hospitalisation. In order to understand the character of catastrophic health expenditure, Artha Global’s Centre for …

More Than a Social Issue: Why Women’s Empowerment is an Economic Imperative
4 months, 3 weeks ago

More Than a Social Issue: Why Women’s Empowerment is an Economic Imperative

News 18  

“Empowering women isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do.” – Barack Obama India stands at a critical juncture in its pursuit of inclusive economic growth, where the interplay of health, gender equality, and economic policies is more significant than ever. The recently tabled Economic Survey 2024 and the Union Budget have brought to …

Health sector sees reduced allocation
4 months, 4 weeks ago

Health sector sees reduced allocation

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: The government's health, medical and family welfare allocation was reduced to Rs 11,468 crore in Thursday’s state Budget, reflecting a decrease of Rs 910 crore from the Rs 12,161 crore allocated in 2023-24. However, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka pointed out that according to the revised estimates, the previous BRS government had spent only Rs …

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre
7 months ago

Rise in public health spending due to States, not Centre

The Hindu  

Public spending on health in India has historically remained low. Note: Union government spending includes spending by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Min of AYUSH Furthermore, a significant part of the increase in health investment as a percentage of GDP during the pandemic needs to be attributed to the negative and low growth of GDP, while absolute increase …

Out-of-pocket health expenditure in India: Inter-state variations
1 year, 4 months ago

Out-of-pocket health expenditure in India: Inter-state variations

Hindustan Times  

Adequate public investment in health, by ensuring better affordability and availability of health care, is crucial for sustaining a resilient public health system. Chart 2 In five states, high public health spending is related to low OOPE, while in four states, low public health spending is related to high OOPE. In eight states, low public health spending is related to …

Centre mandated spending on health has positive impact: study
1 year, 5 months ago

Centre mandated spending on health has positive impact: study

The Hindu  

Measures taken by the National Health Mission have given a positive fillip to the health sector across the country in the past 15 years, a study published in the Public Health For All journal has concluded. The States received funding only if they complied with the Central Government’s schemes, and States were nudged to enhance investment in primary health care. …

More than 90 million Indians spend ‘catastrophic’ 10-25% of household expenses on healthcare
1 year, 5 months ago

More than 90 million Indians spend ‘catastrophic’ 10-25% of household expenses on healthcare

Hindustan Times  

Healthcare expenditure of around 90 million Indians has crossed the ‘catastrophic’ levels – a state of financial condition where health spending exceeds 10% threshold of household consumption, posing a threat to maintain the subsistence needs. According to the Sustainable Development Goals National Indicator Framework Progress Report 2023, a total of 31 million people living in families spend more that a …

What you can do to reduce your out-of-pocket-expenditure on healthcare
1 year, 7 months ago

What you can do to reduce your out-of-pocket-expenditure on healthcare

Live Mint  

The young advertising executive was on his way home from office when he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. First, the hospital where he was admitted said that he had to immediately pay ₹50,000 towards admission—It informed him that he was not eligible for cashless admission since the hospital was not part of the insurer’s network. While people with …

Economic Survey 2022-23 | Out-of-pocket health spending still high, despite hike in government expenditure
1 year, 10 months ago

Economic Survey 2022-23 | Out-of-pocket health spending still high, despite hike in government expenditure

The Hindu  

Almost half of all health spending in India is still paid by patients themselves directly at the point of treatment, although this has dropped as the government’s share of spending on health went up significantly after 2013-14, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23. The share of government health expenditure in total health expenditure was just 28.6% in the financial year …

A heartening health update
2 years, 3 months ago

A heartening health update

Hindustan Times  

The latest report of National Health Accounts — it has data for 2018-19 — shows that India continues to make progress towards reducing the burden of health spending on household budgets. This is a heartening development because the poor are more likely to gain when government spending rather than private health insurance brings about a reduction in OOP spending. As …

Measuring the change: The Hindu Editorial on reliability of socio-economic surveys
2 years, 7 months ago

Measuring the change: The Hindu Editorial on reliability of socio-economic surveys

The Hindu  

The fifth edition of the National Family Health Survey provides a valuable insight into changes underway in Indian society. When highlights were made public last year, the focus was on India’s declining total fertility rate that had, for the first time in the country’s history, dipped to below the replacement level, or a TFR of 2.1. If the trend were …

Fertility falls, obesity goes up in India , says National Family Health Survey
2 years, 7 months ago

Fertility falls, obesity goes up in India , says National Family Health Survey

The Hindu  

The Total Fertility Rate, an average number of children per woman, has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between National Family Health Survey 4 and 5. There are only five States in India which are above replacement level of fertility of 2.1 — Bihar, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand Manipur — as per the national report of …

Defining a new pathway for enhanced healthcare
2 years, 9 months ago

Defining a new pathway for enhanced healthcare

Hindustan Times  

The challenges faced in the past by the Indian healthcare system pale in comparison with those brought on by the pandemic. Globally it can be seen that government expenditures on health need to be more than 70% to 75% of total health expenditures to deliver truly high-quality healthcare services. A review of the November 2021 State of State Finances report …

Needed, a public health data architecture for India
3 years ago

Needed, a public health data architecture for India

The Hindu  

In a country perennially thirsty for reliable health data, the National Family Health Survey is like an oasis. Each survey costs upwards of ₹250 crore and the funding for different rounds of NFHS has been provided by the United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the United Nations Population …

Loss of income, rise in health expenses: How the Covid pandemic has made Indians poorer
3 years ago

Loss of income, rise in health expenses: How the Covid pandemic has made Indians poorer

India Today  

Sample these: 65.6 per cent households in lower-income countries reported financial reasons for not accessing healthcare during the pandemic; global poverty rates have increased for the first time in decades; 9.7 crore additional people have been pushed to extreme poverty in 2020 due to Covid. “The global poverty rate has increased for the first time after the 1997-98 Asian financial …

A close reading of the NFHS-5, the health of India
3 years ago

A close reading of the NFHS-5, the health of India

The Hindu  

The national health and demographic report card is finally completely out. For now, we need to appreciate the progress, especially given the abysmal state of India’s health infrastructure, which has been tragically apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Editorial | Measuring progress: On the lessons of National Family Health Survey-5 To gauge this, the key metric to examine would be …

Measuring progress: The Hindu Editorial on the lessons of National Family Health Survey-5
3 years ago

Measuring progress: The Hindu Editorial on the lessons of National Family Health Survey-5

The Hindu  

A periodic assessment of health and social development indicators is crucial for any country that is still clawing its way towards achieving ideal standards in the Human Development Index. While gender ratio has, for the first time, recorded more women per 1,000 men, gender ratio at birth in the last five years still underlines the persistence of a deep-rooted son …

National Family Health Survey says women outnumber men
3 years ago

National Family Health Survey says women outnumber men

The Hindu  

The fifth edition of the National Family Health Survey confirmed signs of a demographic shift in India. However, sex ratio at birth for children born in the last five years only improved from 919 per 1,000 males in 2015-16 to 929 per 1,000, underscoring that boys, on average, continued to have better odds of survival than girls. Editorial | Measuring …

Wanted: A truly generous health cheque for underserved Indians
3 years, 1 month ago

Wanted: A truly generous health cheque for underserved Indians

Live Mint  

At an annual spend hovering around ₹2,000 per capita, India’s public health expenditure remains one of the lowest among major economies in the world. Yet, in fiscal 2020-21, when the pandemic burst on the scene, India’s government health expenditure inched up to merely 1.5% of GDP. The National Health Policy, in addition to recommending an increase in overall public health …

Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?
3 years, 4 months ago

Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?

Hindustan Times  

This article examines whether health policy interventions and accelerated health investments in India during 2004-2018 could close the gap in inequity in health care utilisation and access to public subsidy by different population groups. Employing Benefit-Incidence Analysis framework, this paper advances earlier evidence by highlighting estimates of health care utilisation, concentration and government subsidy by broader provider categories and across …

COVID-19 impact: Indian households spent more on food, less on healthcare during first lockdown
3 years, 8 months ago

COVID-19 impact: Indian households spent more on food, less on healthcare during first lockdown

Firstpost  

One year on, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to linger. The figure below illustrates a box plot of changes in total household expenditures between June 2019 and June 2020 using the CPDx household survey data. In June 2020, data shows a 1 percent further reduction in the overall share of health expenditures in the total for both rural …

The health nudge is merely a mirage
3 years, 10 months ago

The health nudge is merely a mirage

Live Mint  

HYDERABAD : The Union Budget, as expected, focused on healthcare, recognizing the havoc that the pandemic has caused in the country. With current enrolment under RSBY and other state-run insurance schemes well below the target of 500 million, increased allocation of funds was a necessary step in order to expand health insurance coverage. In a year when everything should have …

Economic Survey | ‘High out-of-pocket expenses for health can lead to poverty’
3 years, 10 months ago

Economic Survey | ‘High out-of-pocket expenses for health can lead to poverty’

The Hindu  

India has one-of-the highest level of Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures contributing directly to the high incidence of catastrophic expenditures and poverty, notes the Economic Survey. The Survey also underlines that OOPE for health increases the risk of vulnerable groups slipping into poverty because of catastrophic health expenditures. The Survey added that for enabling India to respond to pandemics, the health infrastructure must …

First phase of National Family Health Survey-5 shows startling trends in out-of-pocket health expenses
3 years, 11 months ago

First phase of National Family Health Survey-5 shows startling trends in out-of-pocket health expenses

Firstpost  

Despite swift advances in healthcare, Universal Health Coverage remains a distant dream for India. Image credit: Pixabay NFHS data reveals healthcare costs The Out-of-Pocket expenditure incurred by people while accessing public health services is on the rise. NFHS V data reveals that average out of pocket expenditure per delivery in a public health facility has risen in 10 states and …

Discouraging numbers: On National Family Health Survey 2019-20
4 years ago

Discouraging numbers: On National Family Health Survey 2019-20

The Hindu  

With a debilitating death toll and an economic recession, India has had among the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But an express indication of the possible scale of the crisis can be gleaned from the data from the newly released National Family Health Survey 2019-20 which was conducted before the pandemic and its impact. In indicators related to women’s …

National Family Health Survey: As Covid swirls, lifestyle diseases rise in India
4 years ago

National Family Health Survey: As Covid swirls, lifestyle diseases rise in India

India Today  

One thing that the new National Family Health Survey has clearly established is that child health has suffered much in the last five years. The new official data, released by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on December 12, is from the first phase of the 2019-20 round of India's official health data household survey. The data shows that most …

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