Prescriptions for Health Sector
Recognizing the urgent need to improve the performance of health care system in the country the Central government recently released the Draft National Health Policy 2015 document. It is now in the public domain seeking comments from various stakeholders. The document...
Payment Delays Dent Government’s Flagship Health, AIDS Programmes
India's main public health programmes, aimed at millions of rural poor, have been in disarray for months because the government changed the way that over $1.3 billion in federal funds were distributed, according to data and letters seen by Reuters.In a bid last year...
Centre moots health as a fundamental right
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has suggested making health a fundamental right, similar to education. This key proposal in the draft National Health Policy, 2015, suggests making denial of health an offence. Thirteen years after the previous health...
Subir Roy: Say goodbye to national health policy
The draft national health policy, issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare late last year, does not just stress implementation. It adds that there should be a framework that will "specify approved financial allocations and linked to this measurable...
Why the new National Health Policy is a step in the wrong direction
The draft National Health Policy 2015, released by the government to invite public comments, may pose formidable problems of implementation. The policy is an odd throwback to the language of the previous regime. It aims to make health a fundamental right, similar to...
Budget 2015: Rs 33,000 crore for health is barely enough for current schemes
With an allocation of Rs.33,152 crore for health, the government will barely be able to keep the existing healthcare programmes operational. The ambitious National Health Assurance Mission (NHAM), which was supposed to provide citizens basic healthcare services, is...
India hopes to attain MDGs on child mortality, maternal health
With increased funding and stepped-up investments in health systems, India today said it expects to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health this year. With an almost 400 per cent increase in federal funding...
Centre’s move irks health activists
Public health activists expressed dismay and outrage at the central government's decision to scrap the idea of a centrally supported free drug scheme. The scheme was initiated after several studies had shown that medicines constitute about 67% of people's expenditure...
Number of women tobacco users rising
The number of women consuming tobacco products has doubled over 15 years, according to a report by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).While only 10% of women consumed tobacco products during the mid- and late-1990s, the number has increased to 20% in recent...
Labour Minister to transfer Swasthya Bima Yojana to Health from April
The Labour Ministry will transfer the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to the Health Ministry from April 1, Parliament was informed today. "The government has decided to transfer RSBY from Ministry of Labour and Employment to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare...