Is the National Health Protection Scheme good public policy?
7 years ago

Is the National Health Protection Scheme good public policy?

Live Mint  

India recently announced an ambitious plan called the National Health Protection Scheme to provide government- So, is the NHPS a good idea? They found that people covered by insurance were more likely to seek healthcare for their health issues and symptoms, had better access to tertiary care hospitals, and had better post-operative outcomes likely due to seeking care at higher quality hospitals. Therefore, we should provide government Contract with private hospitals and clinics Nearly 75% of out-patient department care and 55% of in-patient department care in India is exclusively from the private sector. Third, NHPS should reimburse hospitals using “bundled payment” so that the hospital receives a fixed amount per episode of care that covers all services provided by the hospital.

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History of this topic

A status check of universal health coverage in India
5 days, 12 hours 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 …

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
3 weeks, 6 days ago

x-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation
Trending News
3 weeks, 6 days ago

Ex-Health Secretary Warns Against Healthcare Privatisation

Deccan Chronicle  

Dr K. Sujatha Rao, former union health secretary, stressed the need to recognise health as a fundamental right, warning against the government's declining role in public healthcare. Speaking at a seminar in Tirupati on Sunday, she criticised increasing private sector control, leaving the poor without access to affordable treatment.She highlighted that while India's health policy discussions began in 1948, subsequent …

India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation
2 months, 3 weeks ago

India’s Public Health Crisis: The Price of Privatisation

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 25, 2024 12:00 IST - 9 MINS READ As a nation and as a population, India shares with its South and South-East Asian neighbours the legacy of a heavy public health burden shaped by a common historical past. A recent NITI Aayog report reveals that the average monthly per capita health expenditure remains at about 13 per …

Soaring inflation pushes up health insurance premiums; makes standardised care costlier
3 months ago

Soaring inflation pushes up health insurance premiums; makes standardised care costlier

The Hindu  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, India is witnessing a surge in healthcare cost inflation, making assured and standardised healthcare unviable for several sections of the society and pushing up health insurance premiums. Speaking to The Hindu, Sumit Bohra, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of India notes that currently in India, rising healthcare costs and growing health insurance premiums are feeding …

The challenge of universal health coverage
3 months ago

The challenge of universal health coverage

The Hindu  

The ongoing national conversation on what India needs to do for universal health coverage often misses the complexity of multiple health systems and the unique challenges they bring. Not the solution Government health expenditure in West Bengal, which was ₹1,346 per capita in 2019-20, is only about 61% of the estimated ₹2,205 required to offer UHC. The story is no …

Evolution of the health care policy framework in India
6 months, 2 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, 1 week 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 …

Budget 2024: Health insurers seek more attractive tax incentives—and a regulator
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Budget 2024: Health insurers seek more attractive tax incentives—and a regulator

Live Mint  

In the interim budget for 2024-25 presented in February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman increased the government’s allocation towards the health sector by nearly 14%. “To enable better retail health insurance penetration, the government can consider categorising them under a separate HSN code and lowering the tax to 5%," says Parimal Heda, chief investment officer, GoDigit General Insurance. The tax on …

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Urban health: Slipping through the cracks

Hindustan Times  

A large volume of evidence sharply highlights the rural-urban divide in health outcomes in India, along with the differences in availability, accessibility, and affordability of health care services between rural and urban areas. Health The paper finds that India is far from reaching the goal of effective self-governance of local bodies in urban areas, and one casualty of this gap …

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

Congress will bring the right to health if elected to power: Jairam Ramesh
10 months, 1 week ago

Congress will bring the right to health if elected to power: Jairam Ramesh

The Hindu  

Accusing the BJP government of mismanaging the healthcare sector in India, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, on May 11, said that his party’s manifesto guarantees the universal right to health for all citizens. Mr. Ramesh also slammed the government for keeping health insurance in the 18% GST slab and said over 63% of Indians did not have health insurance. On June …

LS polls: Karnataka unit of Indian Medical Association comes up with ‘health manifesto’ pointing out gaps in system
11 months, 1 week ago

LS polls: Karnataka unit of Indian Medical Association comes up with ‘health manifesto’ pointing out gaps in system

The Hindu  

Asserting that health ought to be treated as an important election issue, the State unit of Indian Medical Association has come out with a “health manifesto” pointing out the gaps in the healthcare sector and the measures to be taken to bridge them to ensure equal healthcare for all. IMA State president Srinivas S. told The Hindu that health of …

Is your vote for health?
1 year ago

Is your vote for health?

The Hindu  

There are no two ways about this thing, election fever is in the air and with advancing summer, the earth has begun to sizzle not just with the heat, but also early election preparedness. 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 …

Populism does not help public health
1 year, 1 month ago

Populism does not help public health

The Hindu  

In the heart of India’s bustling cities and tranquil villages, there is a silent but significant fight raging on the public health front. The absence of specialised courses such as public health engineering in India’s educational institutions points to a gap in the multidisciplinary approach required in public health management. The current physician-centric focus of India’s public health system often …

30% People Don't Buy Health Insurance Due To High Premium: Study
1 year, 2 months ago

30% People Don't Buy Health Insurance Due To High Premium: Study

News 18  

A new study by healthcare provider Pristyn Care found that 3 out of 10 people across cities in India don’t buy health insurance due to high premiums. The study highlighted that Covid-19 pandemic with its unpredictability and deadly consequences underscored crucial lessons in healthcare and how the system needed to be more resilient and adaptable in the coming times. The …

Voluntary health insurance and its expansion
1 year, 7 months ago

Voluntary health insurance and its expansion

Hindustan Times  

With the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, insurance is no doubt set to play a dominant role in India as seen in other countries, in its path towards universal health coverage. These schemes form multiple risk pools extending from social health insurance like the Central Government Health Scheme and Employee State Insurance Scheme for formal employees to private …

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. …

CSDS-Lokniti health survey | Does contact with a service make people more or less satisfied?
2 years, 1 month ago

CSDS-Lokniti health survey | Does contact with a service make people more or less satisfied?

The Hindu  

The level of voter satisfaction with public health services is a crucial indicator of the strength of a country’s healthcare system. As public health systems are primarily funded by the government, political support for public healthcare policies is crucial. If the public is not satisfied with the healthcare services, they are more likely to withdraw their support for political leaders …

Alleviating the scourge of private healthcare
2 years, 2 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. …

What is the ideal public health insurance model?
2 years, 5 months ago

What is the ideal public health insurance model?

The Hindu  

Public health insurance is the arrangement by which the government undertakes to provide a guarantee of relief against illness, disability, or death in return for payment of a specified premium. UK and India models In the National Health Services model of the UK and India, the health systems are managed by earmarking a proportion of the tax collected by the …

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, …

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern
2 years, 8 months ago

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern

News 18  

Around 70 years ago, when India established its First Primary Health Centre, on the recommendation of the Bhore Committee, the idea was Indians will soon have access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to their needs. According to the Fifth Round of National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, half of the families in India …

Needed, a public health data architecture for India
3 years, 2 months 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 …

The political pathway to health system improvements in India
3 years, 3 months ago

The political pathway to health system improvements in India

Hindustan Times  

The Indian health care sector has made significant progress in the last few decades. In this paper, the authors analyse the political determinants of improved health outcomes, making a case for political attention to healthcare, through increased investments, health care reforms and improved capacity to deliver curative and public health. The shortcomings of low public investment in health, a fragmented …

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

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway
3 years, 4 months ago

More a private sector primer than health-care pathway

The Hindu  

The central government’s flagship health insurance scheme, the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, aims to extend hospitalisation cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family per annum to a poor and vulnerable population of nearly 50 crore people. Apart from AB-PMJAY and State-level government health insurance schemes, small segments of the Indian population are covered under social health insurance …

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India
3 years, 6 months ago

‘More Money for Health’: Financing Universal Health Coverage in India

Hindustan Times  

Any discussion of the pathways that India needs to take towards Universal Healthcare would be incomplete without a clear understanding of how it is to be financed. However, perhaps the most important challenge that we face in our UHC journey is that while the proportions being allocated to healthcare by each state government from its annual budget vary greatly and …

Healthcare for all must be built on the voices of all
3 years, 7 months ago

Healthcare for all must be built on the voices of all

Hindustan Times  

The state of health care in India is far from optimal, a statement with which few of its 1.3 billion citizens would disagree. These underlying tensions are what motivated the formation of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. For India to achieve universal health coverage in the next decade, it is imperative to understand and negotiate the …

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 …

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 …

Reimagining India’s Health System: The Lancet Citizens’ Commission
4 years, 3 months ago

Reimagining India’s Health System: The Lancet Citizens’ Commission

The Quint  

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the gaps in the Indian healthcare system and necessitated the need to reevaluate the work that needs to be done to improve access to affordable, accessible and inclusive care for all. Vikram Patel, Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-founder of the Indian NGO Sangath, added, “The …

Book REVIEW | The good doctor’s submissions
4 years, 3 months ago

Book REVIEW | The good doctor’s submissions

Deccan Chronicle  

The coronavirus pandemic holds many lessons for India, primary among which is the need for a robust public health system. Dr Samiran Nundy, one of the country’s leading surgeons in the field of gastroenterology and former head of the department of gastrointestinal surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, had painstakingly put together an encyclopaedic book on the …

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children
4 years, 4 months ago

Children's Day: COVID-19 showed us glaring holes in the public health system that risk the health of our children

Firstpost  

Undernutrition continues to be associated with 50 percent of all under-five deaths and India accounts for third of the world’s stunted children according to the Global Nutrition Report 2018. As Oxfam’s Commitment to Reducing Inequality highlights, India’s spending on public health is the fourth lowest in the world. The result is an impact on healthcare delivery where access to routine …

Reversing health sector neglect with a reform agenda
4 years, 6 months ago

Reversing health sector neglect with a reform agenda

The Hindu  

Two countries which lead in the COVID-19 cases tally in the world today, namely the United States and India, are also the ones where the need for health-care reform post COVID-19 has been most keenly felt. However, the foundational aspects of U.S. health care, such as a fragmented private insurance landscape and a love for expensive specialised care, could hardly …

COVID-19 and a country club India must leave
4 years, 7 months ago

COVID-19 and a country club India must leave

The Hindu  

As a billion Indians watch with horror as the pandemic sweeps the land, many look with envy to countries to the east of us where the virus originated, and to the west of us in Europe which were devastated just a few months ago but appear to have beaten the bug and are starting to repair their societies. Comment | …

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 …

Caste and public health
4 years, 10 months ago

Caste and public health

The Hindu  

INDIA is one of the world’s leading destinations for medical tourism, and yet it ranks abysmally low in terms of child and maternal nutrition in the world. But the limitation of this private health care system is that it has no space for the classical public health concerns, made apparent by COVID-19. The Brahminical elite and neoliberal state have created …

After corona: Upgrade India's healthcare fast
4 years, 10 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 …

India is poised for deep structural health reforms
4 years, 11 months ago

India is poised for deep structural health reforms

Hindustan Times  

Despite a history of a weak health system, India was near an inflection point on health care reforms even before the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. India’s weak health care is a legacy of limited attention to it after Independence, and the multiple priorities of a young nation. India’s per capita income and health expenditure are similar to those of …

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 …

Rahul Gandhi promises right to healthcare law, if Congress voted to power
6 years ago

Rahul Gandhi promises right to healthcare law, if Congress voted to power

Hindustan Times  

The Congress will roll out a universal Right to Healthcare law, entitling people to free diagnostics and medicines through a network of public hospitals, if it comes to power in the summer’s general elections, party president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday. Speaking at the concluding session of a two-day convention on ‘Health for Al’l organised by the Raipur-based Mayaram Surjan …

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 …

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 …

What ails government health insurance schemes
6 years, 5 months ago

What ails government health insurance schemes

Live Mint  

New Delhi: The Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana launched in Ranchi on Sunday may well turn out to be India’s grandest experiment in state-funded health insurance, but it is certainly not the first of its kind. Over the past few years, several government- The analysis, based on data from the last National Sample Survey Office health survey conducted in …

The staggering costs of India’s failing health systems
6 years, 5 months ago

The staggering costs of India’s failing health systems

Live Mint  

Over the past few decades, rapid economic growth has allowed millions of Indians to lift themselves out of poverty. A Mint analysis of data from the last National Sample Survey Office health survey conducted in 2013-14 shows that 36 million households incurred health expenses that exceeded the annual per capita consumption of those households. Rural India accounted for 25 million …

Opinion | PMJAY: The promises and challenges of a bold experiment
6 years, 6 months ago

Opinion | PMJAY: The promises and challenges of a bold experiment

Live Mint  

The Narendra Modi government is better known for its economic programmes such as infrastructure and ease of doing business, than its social programmes. In contrast the Ayushman Bharat—Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, a health insurance scheme announced in the last budget, will only be launched on 23 September, towards the fag end of this government’s tenure. However, the promises and …

Taking a cue out of health insurance schemes down south
6 years, 6 months ago

Taking a cue out of health insurance schemes down south

Hindustan Times  

Ayushman Bharat, the government’s flagship health insurance scheme, has rekindled the hope for moving towards universal coverage of hospitalisation costs in India, but the initial spark was ignited by Yeshasvini, the health insurance scheme for rural farmers and peasants, initiated on a modest scale in Karnataka in 2003. The Tamil Nadu health insurance scheme spent about ₹225 per enrollee in …

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