-The Hindu   Planning Commission allocation will see significant rise The K. Srinath Reddy Committee of Experts, appointed by the Prime Minister to suggest universal health insurance coverage, is expected to submit its report by month-end, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Friday. At the same time, the Commission would ensure that allocation for the health sector was significantly increased in the 12th Plan, he said. During the 11th Plan, the...

NEARLY 80 km from Pune is Ralegan Siddhi village with about 3,000 people. It would have been one among the hundreds of nondescript villages in Parner taluk of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, had it not been for Kisan Baburao Hazare, 71, better known as Anna, or older brother, a title that was appended to his name after he made the village more than just a dot on the map. Until he was...

In a significant expansion of its health insurance scheme for the poor, the government has decided to bring workers under its flagship job guarantee programme as well as a host of workers from the unorganised sector, including rickshaw pullers and domestic workers. The labour ministry has decided to include workers who have worked under the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme for a minimum of 15 days under the ambit of the...

The out-of-pocket healthcare spending by Indians continues to push them further into poverty with the public spending on health is almost negligible, according to the India Health Report 2010. Studies have documented that households in India spend a disproportionate share of their consumption expenditure on health, with the contribution from government being almost negligible. Public spending on health is very low, stagnant at about 1 per cent of GDP, putting India...

Governments in India — Centre and states — spend around one per cent of the country's GDP on health. Only five countries — Burundi, Myanmar, Pakistan , Sudan and Cambodia — have a lower figure than this. But private spending on the crucial sector is 4.2 per cent of GDP, among the top 20 countries in the world. Within this private spend, employers pay for about 9 per cent and...