Decentralisation of health services, price cap on medical supplies are among the recommendations made by Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining India's Health System.
Vaccination is the only bulwark against the third wave. But there are other measures that Modi govt must immediately tend to, starting with Ayushman Bharat scheme.
The global average of out-of-pocket healthcare cost is 18.2 per cent, but in India, the number is 62.7 per cent. Don’t forget the decades of underinvestment in health.
India’s disease burden was related to poverty, but it increasingly relates to economic growth that’s not mindful of the new health risks emerging from it.
Noting that scientists have warned of similar challenges in the future, President Ram Nath Kovind said he hoped the world has learnt the right lessons from Covid-19.
The aim of the initiative is to ‘harness citizens’ engagement to address the long-standing need for India to move towards genuine Universal Health Care’.
Dismissing Ayurveda as jugaad and quackery is the worst kind of disinformation campaign against one of the ancient indigenous forms of healthcare systems.
The Group of Ministers on health has also urged the govt to come up with some regulations on population control as creating ‘health infrastructure for a large population is an uphill task’.
Finance ministry says the proposed revamp will focus on structural reforms, rate rationalisation & ease of living, & will be deliberated upon in the coming weeks.
The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
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