Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
India

India must increase expenditure on health: Experts

Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 May, 2014 10:36 AM
    Experts Thursday sought increased spending by the Indian government on health services to the citizens while reducing financial burden on individuals paying out of their pockets.
     
    Supported and by the United Nations, the panel discussion deliberated on India's route to Universal Health Coverage and brought out key issues related to the concept and lessons to be learnt from countries in different regions of the world.
     
    Highlighting the importance of increasing government expenditure on health in India which is one of the lowest in the world, at around one percent of GDP, Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, commended the policy intent by the planning commission to increase spending on health to 1.87 percent of GDP by 2017.
     
    "No country in the world has fully achieved UHC in a short period as there is always some gap between the need and utilization. UHC should be conceptualized as a direction rather than a destination, an idea that is relevant for India," he said.
     
    Lise Grande, United Nations Resident Coordinator, said the UHC was a "high priority" in India.
     
    "We are particularly worried about families who fall below the poverty line when someone falls ill and the family has to struggle to pay for health care," she said. 
     
    According to Indrani Gupta of Institute of Economic Growth, "political and bureaucratic will" was needed to bring about change.
     
    "The disease burden, infrastructural and personnel requirements and health financing situation are the three elements that need to be analyzed to plan the design of the UHC model to be rolled out in Indiaa we need strong political and bureaucratic will," she said.

    MORE India ARTICLES

    Modi's poems translated in English

    Modi's poems translated in English
    A collection of poems penned by Narendra Modi is being published with the BJP's prime ministerial candidate terming them "screams of thoughts" of things he had faced or imagined.

    Modi's poems translated in English

    Voting made easier for government officials on poll duty

    Voting made easier for government officials on poll duty
    A total of 45,383 Election Duty Certificates (EDCs) have been issued to government officials, deployed for the April 10 Lok Sabha election in Delhi, an Election Commission official said Tuesday.

    Voting made easier for government officials on poll duty

    Slaped Again! Arvind Kejriwal Fears Threat To Life Now

    Slaped Again! Arvind Kejriwal Fears Threat To Life Now
    AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday said he faced a threat to life after being slapped by a man while campaigning for his party here.

    Slaped Again! Arvind Kejriwal Fears Threat To Life Now

    1984 Riots Case: Sonia Gandhi declines to show US court her passport

    1984 Riots Case: Sonia Gandhi declines to show US court her passport
    India's Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi has declined to provide a copy of her passport to a US court, saying that government of India had denied her permission to do so

    1984 Riots Case: Sonia Gandhi declines to show US court her passport

    Election Special: Assam, Tripura kick off balloting with high turnout

    Election Special: Assam, Tripura kick off balloting with high turnout
    India went to the polls Monday, with nearly six million people casting their vote in five constituencies in Assam and one of two seats in Tripura. The chief ministers of both the northeastern states dismissed any "Modi wave" and expressed happiness at the high voter turnout of at least 74 percent in Assam and as high as 84 percent in Tripura.

    Election Special: Assam, Tripura kick off balloting with high turnout

    From economic reform to protecting cow, BJP promises it all

    From economic reform to protecting cow, BJP promises it all
    Taking up issues ranging from economic revival to protecting cows and Ram temple, the much delayed manifesto of the BJP Monday promised "immediate and decisive action" to revive the country from the "decade of decay" of the UPA.

    From economic reform to protecting cow, BJP promises it all