Health
Govt wishes to achieve healthcare goals by spending Rs 3 a day?
According to the latest National Health Profile, India is one of the countries with the lowest public health spending
By DTE Staff
Published: Friday 22 June 2018
The Indian government plans to live up to its promise of ‘health assurance to all Indians’ with a health spending of just Rs 3 per day that counts for 1.02 per cent of the GDP, says the latest National Health Profile.
At Rs1,112 per capita, India is one of the countries with the lowest per year public health spending. Even lower-income countries like Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal spend 2.5 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 1.1 per cent of the GDP on their people’s health.
This is when the National Health Policy said the country would increase health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025 after not meeting the 2010 target of two per cent.
The National Health Profile was prepared using information on demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, and on health infrastructure and human resources.
In India, low health spending is pushing people towards private sector for their healthcare needs since India stands sixth in the out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending among the low-middle income group of 50 nations. These costs push around 55 million Indians below the poverty line every year, say studies.
Despite government’s claims on health, the budget received for the National Rural Health Mission and the expenditure thereunder was only about 40 per cent of what was envisaged for full revitalisation of the NRHM framework.
It’s high time the Indian government stops being the miser dad.
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Dear editor.
Greetings of the day.
I had to subject my mother to an emergency permanent pacemaker implant at a private hospital. the expense incurred is way beyond a salaried persons pocket with single income and at least three dependents. inspite of the governments assurance and the news in media about 15oo percent margin in the pharmaceutical industry, there are it seems no systems in place to check the organised robbery in the medical setup nowadays.
tis will continue as long as there is lacunae in the coverage by government health setup and there is room for private hospitals to play around. come what may, when a near and dear one goes in for an emergency intervention, no logic and rational helps.
we need strong legislations to curb the greed in the health sector so that quality health care is affordable to all.