Making health system push economic growth: a case of missed opportunity
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Making health system push economic growth: a case of missed opportunity

The Hindu  

To make our economy grow, we need to push private consumption. The key department within the Health ministry, the Department of Health and Family Welfare, which runs most of the critical public health programmes, saw a meagre 11% increase in its annual Budget Estimates from last fiscal year’s Revised Estimates. Within health, the focus remains on the national level insurance programme- the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, for which allocations have risen by 24% from last year’s RE. For the National Health Mission, the increase in allocations from 2024 to this year’s Budget is a meagre 3.4%. With slowing economic growth, its implications for jobs and wages, under financed and weak health system for rural and urban poor creates perfect conditions for a health crisis, and could further pull-down economic growth.

Health Insurance Budget Urban Economic Growth Care Private Primary Primary Care Nhm Programmes Health System Allocations Dohfw  urban  opportunity  push  case  health  economic  private  making  growth  programmes  primary  insurance  nhm  allocations  budget  system  care  missed

History of this topic

A status check of universal health coverage in India
1 week ago

A status check of universal health coverage in India

The Hindu  

A little over six years ago, what has been proclaimed as the world’s largest health assurance scheme, namely, the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, was rolled out in the face of hitherto scarce evidence of publicly funded health insurance affording significant levels of financial risk protection, particularly to the marginalised. Frequently, inpatient care insurance is linked to …

Health Gets 30 per Cent More Funds Than Last Year: Minister
2 weeks, 3 days ago

Health Gets 30 per Cent More Funds Than Last Year: Minister

Deccan Chronicle  

Vijayawada: Health Minister Satyakumar Yadav has said five multi-specialty hospitals are being constructed in tribal areas at a cost of Rs 50 crore each. The minister thanked the state assembly for sanctioning a budget grant of Rs 19,264 crore for medical and health, and noted that this was 30 per cent more than the budget allocations for health from the …

Kerala Budget: Not a substantial allocation for health care sector
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Kerala Budget: Not a substantial allocation for health care sector

The Hindu  

The outlay of the State Budget presented by Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal in the Assembly on health care, which excludes health-related expenditure such as water and sanitation, is around ₹3,000 crore, which accounts for 1.74% of the proposed total government expenditure. The issue of poor government spending in the health sector had been plaguing the public health-conscious State like …

Doctors urge govt. to allocate more funds to health sector
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Doctors urge govt. to allocate more funds to health sector

The Hindu  

Medical professionals on Thursday urged the government to urgently strengthen primary health centres, community health centres and district health centres in the State. Health Budget-2025’, organised by Praja Aarogya Vedika at MBVK Bhavan in Vijayawada, doctors discussed the importance of raising the allocation for the health sector in the upcoming Budget. Some of their demands include attention to preventive healthcare; …

National Rural Health Mission: Manmohan Singh’s quiet revolution in healthcare
2 months, 2 weeks ago

National Rural Health Mission: Manmohan Singh’s quiet revolution in healthcare

The Hindu  

Manmohan Singh’s legacy as an economist often overshadows his tenure as a Prime Minister. However, no other Prime Minister in India’s history has been responsible for saving as many lives as Manmohan Singh, thanks to his landmark decision to launch the National Rural Health Mission in 2005. By 2014, when Singh’s tenure ended, maternal mortality had dropped to 167 per …

Hospital beds, specialists: Why health takes centre stage in Maharashtra's poll promises
4 months, 1 week 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 …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India

Hindustan Times  

This paper traces the history of the evolution of India’s health care policy framework, focusing on its major objectives, challenges faced, and outcomes emerged. The key themes prevalent across most of these policies and specific initiatives included: increasing public health spending and reducing out-of-pocket or catastrophic health spending; addressing rural-urban inequalities in healthcare; developing primary health care; and achieving universal …

The burden of health care on India’s poorest
7 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 …

Transforming health care access and empowering communities
7 months, 2 weeks ago

Transforming health care access and empowering communities

Hindustan Times  

Life expectancy and access to health care have increased globally in recent decades, which has significantly improved general welfare. The World Health Organization states that a health care system should improve population health, prevent health care costs, and meet health expectations. With India's fertility rate declining, it becomes even more critical to integrate fertility-related healthcare into the larger health insurance …

A Budget that places health on the margins
8 months ago

A Budget that places health on the margins

The Hindu  

With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, the Union Budget expectedly shifted focus to levers of economic growth such as infrastructure and employment. It was also hoped that the recognition of population health as a vital investment for accelerating as well as protecting economic growth would see continued investment in strengthening our health systems. In the Interim Budget, …

Healthcare privatisation linked with worse outcomes, higher profits: Lancet Study
10 months, 1 week ago

Healthcare privatisation linked with worse outcomes, higher profits: Lancet Study

Deccan Chronicle  

New Delhi: Privatisation of healthcare was found to almost never have a positive effect on the quality of care, and was associated with higher profits, a research that reviewed previous studies of high-income countries such as the US, Germany, Canada, and South Korea has claimed.Researchers said the findings, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, challenged the theory that privatisation …

Electoral season and restructuring the health system
1 year, 1 month ago

Electoral season and restructuring the health system

The Hindu  

With the electoral season on, it is going to be raining manifestos. Both mentioned revamping the primary health system, ensuring universal health care, expanding human resources, increasing use of technology and so on. The NDA ensured continuity of policy by scrapping the Medical Council of India and establishing the National Medical Commission, further strengthened the rural health infrastructure with capital …

Out-of-pocket health expenditure in India: Inter-state variations
1 year, 7 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, 8 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. …

Health department outlay hiked to Rs.12,161 cr
2 years, 1 month ago

Health department outlay hiked to Rs.12,161 cr

Deccan Chronicle  

HYDERABAD: Finance minister T. Harish Rao provided Rs 200 crore to implement the KCR Nutritional Kits initiative, which will benefit about 4 lakh pregnant women, in the State Budget for 2023-24 on Monday. Harish Rao, who is also health minister, hiked the outlay for the department to Rs 12,161 crore, against Rs 11,237 crore last year and Rs 5,816 crore …

Budget 2023: Why last full budget of Narendra Modi govt should focus on health sector
2 years, 2 months ago

Budget 2023: Why last full budget of Narendra Modi govt should focus on health sector

Firstpost  

Since next year, 2024, the country will hold general elections, it would be a vote-on-account. It must include allocations for public hospitals, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and digital health, including R&D and capacity building for healthcare at all levels. The providers from these smaller towns should be able to deliver healthcare, and government must ‘ONLY’ give local providers viability gap funding and …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years, 3 months ago

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare

The Hindu  

India ranks poorly on multiple health financing indicators. Public health insurance schemes have often been reproached for imposing unreasonable package rates on empanelled private providers with a weak regard for actual costs of care. For instance, some countries like Canada have conceived regional health boards that organise care equitably within regions, exploit economies of scale, and bring down healthcare costs. …

Charting the course for accessible health care in cities
2 years, 6 months ago

Charting the course for accessible health care in cities

Hindustan Times  

The pace of urbanisation in India has increased drastically in the past two decades, and the world’s fifth-largest economy is projected by the United Nations to have 675 million of its people, about 43%, living in cities by 2035, up from 35% in 2021. The 15th Finance Commission report highlights how the Covid-19 pandemic stretched government health facilities in India, …

A heartening health update
2 years, 6 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 …

To bolster health care, governments must raise their budget allocations
3 years ago

To bolster health care, governments must raise their budget allocations

Hindustan Times  

We are now past the halfway mark between 2017 and 2025. The National Health Policy 2017 aimed to increase public health spending from about 1% of the Gross Domestic Product to 2.5% by 2025. Before NHP 2017, NHP 2002, National Rural Health Mission in 2005, and the 11th and 12th five-year plans, all envisioned an increase in public health spending …

Budget 2022: Will the Healthcare Sector get a Booster Shot From FM Sitharaman?
3 years, 1 month ago

Budget 2022: Will the Healthcare Sector get a Booster Shot From FM Sitharaman?

News 18  

Many believe that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman can make some key announcements related to these industries in this year’s financial statement. In the previous budget, the government of India paid special attention to the healthcare sector and came up with several new programs and increased budgetary allocations for the sector. Prompted by several new developments, prevailing market scenarios, public perception, …

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth
3 years, 2 months ago

Chandrajit Banerjee | Budget must pave way for ambitious decadal growth

Deccan Chronicle  

India’s economy has seen a sharp rebound after the first two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to be the fastest growing major economy this year. Low government health expenditure leads to higher per capita out-of-pocket expenditure, impacting disposable incomes and access to healthcare. Therefore, India must increase its public expenditure on healthcare from the current 1.3 per …

Did the poor gain from India’s health policy interventions?
3 years, 8 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 …

The health nudge is merely a mirage
4 years, 1 month 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 …

Reviving growth: Government needs to do a fine balance in Budget on Feb. 1
4 years, 2 months ago

Reviving growth: Government needs to do a fine balance in Budget on Feb. 1

Deccan Chronicle  

With economic activity resuming and the vaccine becoming a reality, the challenge of lives versus livelihoods is largely addressed. Supporting economic recovery and growth via greater public expenditure as well as ensuring prudent fiscal management to safeguard macro-economic stability is an immediate concern the Budget must address. Therefore, the government must hike its infrastructure spend by one per cent of …

First phase of National Family Health Survey-5 shows startling trends in out-of-pocket health expenses
4 years, 2 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 …

Stopping the slide of health care in India
4 years, 3 months ago

Stopping the slide of health care in India

The Hindu  

India’s health care is a dark echo chamber. What makes insurance and private health care an egregious combination is that the insurance backup incentivises hospitals to expand the bill but the patients do not get attended to in their best interests. In any case, insurance of secondary and tertiary care pushes out long-term investment by the state and people and …

Cost of coronavirus: Routine health services derailed in India
4 years, 6 months ago

Cost of coronavirus: Routine health services derailed in India

India Today  

For months now, Indian doctors have been warning that patients with serious and chronic conditions have been missing appointments, and have been speaking out about the difficulties in accessing medicines, dialysis and other life-saving interventions because of Coronavirus-related disruptions. Now new official data confirms that health services in India have been drastically curtailed, with serious potential consequences. The National Health …

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era
4 years, 8 months ago

World Population Day 2020: India need to focus on quality health care for all in the post-COVID-19 era

Firstpost  

With the private health sector failing to provide equitable healthcare, we should consider regulations to ensure it acts in the people’s interests and not in the quest for profits. As we highlight the population issues on World Population Day, it is also important to put India’s healthcare system under the scanner and address the barriers to delivering quality healthcare services …

Needed, a transfusion for public health care
4 years, 9 months ago

Needed, a transfusion for public health care

The Hindu  

A news channel in India alleged recently that several private hospitals in the country were “exposed” by a “sting operation” to be levying fees in excess when COVID-19 patients went to them for care. A mirror to public care The reason for this abundance of private health care is obviously the lack of adequate public health care. The Indian government …

Public expenditure on health to be increased: Nirmala Sitharaman
4 years, 10 months ago

Public expenditure on health to be increased: Nirmala Sitharaman

Hindustan Times  

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there will be an increase in public health expenditure, which currently hovers a little over 1%, as she announced a slew of measures to reform the sector in the country to brace for such pandemic situations in future. Special focus will also be on ramping health and wellness centres in villages, Union Finance Minister …

After corona: Upgrade India's healthcare fast
4 years, 11 months ago

After corona: Upgrade India's healthcare fast

Deccan Chronicle  

In the ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic, both central and state governments have shown great commitment in meeting the medical needs of Indians. Around 57 per cent of Indians said they had gone for treatment to government hospitals in the past one year, while 41 per cent said they avoided government hospitals. But there is a difference: while very …

Manish Tewari: What we need is a New Deal for health
4 years, 11 months ago

Manish Tewari: What we need is a New Deal for health

Deccan Chronicle  

The most tragic image of the Covid-19 crisis so far has been of the millions of abandoned workers fleeing the cruel metropolises of our country, yearning for the safety of home and hearth. On paper India’s basic health infrastructure looks impressive with 1,52,326 sub-centres, 25,020 primary health centres and 5,363 community health centres providing health services to 72.2 per cent …

Making the private sector care for public health
4 years, 11 months ago

Making the private sector care for public health

The Hindu  

As India enters the second week of a national lockdown imposed in response to COVID-19, it is still unclear how well prepared the healthcare system is in dealing with the pandemic. So, an already overburdened public health system will be unable to meet the increase in moderate and severe cases of COVID-19 that would require hospitalisation. A graduated approach to …

Why India needs more mohalla clinics
5 years, 3 months ago

Why India needs more mohalla clinics

Live Mint  

Both rural and urban households spend twice as much on outpatient or non-hospitalisation healthcare costs as they do on hospitalisations, data from a new National Sample Survey report shows. India has one of the world’s highest proportions of out-of-pocket health expenditure, and the expense per hospitalisation can be catastrophically high, especially for the poor. In general poorer people report lower …

Govt courts private hospitals to boost health insurance programme, offers incentives; NHA likely to seek Rs 8,000 cr for next year
5 years, 4 months ago

Govt courts private hospitals to boost health insurance programme, offers incentives; NHA likely to seek Rs 8,000 cr for next year

Firstpost  

Launched last year, the scheme is critical to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to reform the country’s health system. New Delhi: India will offer incentives to private hospitals to take part in the government’s health insurance programme, potentially the biggest of its kind in the world, a senior government official told Reuters. Launched last year, the scheme is critical to …

Indian Medical Association terms budgetary allocation for health sector 'inadequate'; says health India's blind spot
5 years, 8 months ago

Indian Medical Association terms budgetary allocation for health sector 'inadequate'; says health India's blind spot

Firstpost  

The Indian Medical Association on Saturday termed the budgetary allocation in the health sector “inadequate”. New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association on Saturday termed the budgetary allocation in the health sector “inadequate” as the body lamented that public spending on health remained at 1.2 per cent of GDP. The Indian Medical Association, however, said the 15.4 per cent higher allocation …

Health Sector Budget: Rs 62,659-cr outlay announced, highest in the past 2 FYs; Rs 6,400-cr earmarked for AB-PMJAY
5 years, 8 months ago

Health Sector Budget: Rs 62,659-cr outlay announced, highest in the past 2 FYs; Rs 6,400-cr earmarked for AB-PMJAY

Firstpost  

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday during the Union Budget 2019 announced Rs 62,659.12 crore outlay for the health sector in 2019-2020 fiscal, the highest in the last two financial years. New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced Rs 62,659.12 crore outlay for the health sector in 2019-2020 fiscal, the highest in the last two financial …

As govt begins fresh innings, all eyes on healthcare promise
5 years, 9 months ago

As govt begins fresh innings, all eyes on healthcare promise

Live Mint  

The government will have to focus on the major health initiatives that played a pivotal role in wooing voters and helped the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance come back to power at the centre. The key health initiatives of the previous government included Ayushman Bharat, price cuts for essential drugs and implants, and the introduction of health-related bills …

India’s health care sector needs fresh ideas
6 years, 2 months ago

India’s health care sector needs fresh ideas

Hindustan Times  

There are some interesting developments in progress within India. Adequate total expenditure on health care by citizens but over 50 million people returning to poverty each year because of health shocks, having to once again claw their way back up. In a field such as curative health care, given the severe challenges that are inherently associated with it and its …

India's public healthcare: Moving from 'biggest' to 'finest' infrastructure a must
6 years, 3 months ago

India's public healthcare: Moving from 'biggest' to 'finest' infrastructure a must

Firstpost  

India’s public healthcare system is sick. This initiative, which has been described as the “world’s biggest healthcare programme” will insure more than 500 million Indian citizens who currently have no coverage. In 2015, India’s public expenditure on public healthcare was approximately one percent of its GDP. Regardless of why it was done, this action was essential given the sad and …

Opinion | Ayushman Bharat: a critical perspective
6 years, 4 months ago

Opinion | Ayushman Bharat: a critical perspective

Live Mint  

The Ayushman Bharat: National Health Protection Scheme has a defined benefit cover of ₹ 5 lakh per family per year covering over 10 crore families. Additionally, the states’ participation in the scheme mandates them to contribute funds for insurance, which naturally diverts funds allocated to building healthcare infrastructure within the state. The average per-capita health expenditure of the bottom three …

India spends less on health than Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives
6 years, 9 months ago

India spends less on health than Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives

Hindustan Times  

India’s public health expenditure — 1% of its gross domestic product — might have seen a marginal rise from 0.98% in 2014, but it is still far behind even low-income countries that spend 1.4% on an average, reveals the National Health Profile 2018. India spends even less than some of its neighbours, countries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, …

‘Govt is committed to take public expenditure on healthcare up to 2.5% of GDP’
6 years, 9 months ago

‘Govt is committed to take public expenditure on healthcare up to 2.5% of GDP’

Live Mint  

New Delhi: The Union cabinet in March approved the centrally Preeti Sudan, secretary, ministry of health and family welfare, spoke in an interview about the scheme, implementation procedures and its long-term implications on healthcare in India. Previously, health insurance schemes such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and similar state health insurance schemes have not been quite successful in India. A …

Low-income nations including Bhutan, Nepal spend more than India on health
6 years, 9 months ago

Low-income nations including Bhutan, Nepal spend more than India on health

Hindustan Times  

India’s public health expenditure — 1% of its gross domestic product — may have witnessed a marginal improvement from 0.98% in 2014, but it is still way behind even the low-income countries that spend 1.4% on an average, shows National Health Profile 2018. India is spending even less than some of its neighbours countries such as Bhutan, Sri Lanka and …

NHPS remains strategy on paper unless delivery machinery overhauled extensively
6 years, 11 months ago

NHPS remains strategy on paper unless delivery machinery overhauled extensively

Live Mint  

1950, the year India became a republic, was also the year when several nations acknowledged the need to join forces on issues of health. WHO’s theme for this year’s World Health Day is universal healthcare, an exact match with Indian government’s vision of Ayushman Bharat, powered by the National Health Protection Scheme announcement by the Union finance minister in his …

Funding shortfall may hit National Health Mission’s key programmes
6 years, 11 months ago

Funding shortfall may hit National Health Mission’s key programmes

Live Mint  

New Delhi: Several significant programmes under the National Health Mission are likely to be impacted because of a shortfall of funds in 2018-19. The ministry of health and family welfare got an allocation of only Rs30,129.61 crore for 2018-19 against a projected plan outlay of Rs34,882.32 crore under NHM for the current year. The ministry of health and family welfare …

Govt extends National Health Mission till March 2020 with Rs 85,217 cr budget support
7 years ago

Govt extends National Health Mission till March 2020 with Rs 85,217 cr budget support

India TV News  

In a major boost to health infrastructure, the government today cleared a proposal for continuation of the National Health Mission till March 31, 2020 with a budgetary support of Rs 85,217 crore, according to an official statement One of the key objectives of the mission would be to reduce 'Out Of Pocket Expenditure ' on health care, it said. During …

National Health Protection Scheme will not help its intended beneficiaries
7 years, 1 month ago

National Health Protection Scheme will not help its intended beneficiaries

Live Mint  

It has been a fortnight since the Union finance minister announced the government’s vision of Ayushman Bharat, or the National Health Protection Scheme, assuring 100 million families of coverage of up to Rs5 lakh for secondary and tertiary care. It is a theoretical exercise to predict their likely reaction to the NHPS, based on the established correlation between economic capacity, …

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