-Frontline Health activists say the health chapter of the Twelfth Plan document exaggerates the role of the private sector in providing health care. The draft chapter on health for the Twelfth Five Year Plan document not only is grossly inadequate in its approach but exaggerates to unrealistic levels the role of the private sector in providing health care. It invokes the concept of universal health care (UHC), but, critics say, it...

-Live Mint The Sonia Gandhi led-National Advisory Council (NAC) on Friday formed a working group on universal health coverage for phasing-in the roll-out of the proposed scheme in the 12th Five-Year Plan period. Meanwhile, differences persist between the health ministry and the Planning Commission on the role of insurance and the private sector within the universal health coverage (UHC) plan. Health ministry and Planning Commission officials presented their views to the NAC on...

-The Telegraph In a Primary Health centre in eastern Jharkhand, the angry shouts of a nurse punctuated the occasional wails of a woman in her early-20s who was in labour pain and only minutes away from delivering her baby. Each time a uterine contraction evoked a yell or a wail or the woman sought a more comfortable position during labour, the nurse or other health workers admonished her, asking her to shut...

-The Hindu Government plans to roll out 12th Plan The National Advisory Council (NAC) is meeting here on Friday to sort out differences between the Planning Commission and the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare over the proposed National Health Mission. The Government plans to roll out the 12th Plan. The implementation of the Universal Health Coverage, as recommended by the High Level Expert Group, will also be discussed. The Planning Commission wants...

-The Hindu Scheme coming for free distribution of medicines through public hospitals and health centres The government will expand the scope of the NRHM to all towns and cities, by converting it into a National Health Mission (NHM), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced on Wednesday. In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort here, he said the government was also formulating a new scheme for distribution of free medicines...