special story
the union health minister,
Mr J P Nadda said that
the government adopted
a highly participative and
consultative approach
in policy formulation
process. “The Draft
National Health Policy
was placed it public
domain on December
30, 2014. Over 5000
suggestions were received.
This was followed by
consultations with the
State governments and
other stakeholders for
further fine tuning of
the policy. The policy
was placed before the
Central Council for Health
& Family Welfare, the
apex policy making body
and was unanimously
endorsed by it,” he stated.
Health is
priority but not a
fundamental right!
At present, there is
no proposal under
consideration of the
Government to make
health as a fundamental
right. However, National
Health Policy, 2017
advocates progressively
incremental Assurance
based Approach with
focus on preventive and
promotive healthcare. As
a crucial component, the
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BioVoiceNews | April 2017
Policy proposes raising
public health expenditure
to 2.5% of the GDP in a
time bound manner.
A statement showing
per capita expenditure
on public health in India
vis-à-vis other select
developing countries
in 2014 is give below:
Country
India
Thailand
China
South Africa
Mexico
Iran (Islamic
Republic of)
Indonesia
Sri Lanka
Malaysia
Health Insurance in India
are not available at central
level as the same is not
centrally maintained by
Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority
(IRDA). The total number
of lives (including elderly
people) covered under any
type of Health insurance
policies during the
General Government
Health Expenditure
(GGHE) per Capita in
US$ 2014
23
177
234
275
351
145
Source: WHO: Global
Health Expenditure
Database, 2014
Health insurance
for all far from
realization!
The details of the
percentage of elderly
people covered under
38
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252
Financial Year 2015-16
was 35.89 crore which is
approximately 30% of the
India’s total population.
The Population Division
of United Nations
Department of Economic
and Social Affairs in its
2015 report has projected
the elderly population
(60+age group) to be
19.4% in 2050 as per the