-The Hindu Five years after the first canteen came up, the future of the pet project of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa hangs in balance due to reports of fall in patronage and mounting losses borne by civic bodies. Budgetary support and operational reforms may be necessary for a course correction Sekar. D was observing this newspaper’s team of reporters as he sat cross-legged on the tiled floor. Then, he abandoned his...
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Health Budget Could Have Been About People, But Now It's About Markets -Ravi Duggal
-TheWire.in The Budget speech pitch of ‘Swastha Bharat’ as ‘Samridha Bharat’ is deception, because the allocation for realising that is missing. Each year when the Budget is tabled in parliament, there is excitement and expectations. Should we say this used to be? Things have changed dramatically over the years. In the good old days, during the Budget session, we would wait excitedly to know about the price hike in petrol, diesel and kerosene....
More »Topping NITI Aayog Health Index may deprive Kerala of incentives -C Maya
-The Hindu Being at the top of the game is not always rewarding. So it would seem, going by Kerala’s story. In the first-ever Health Index initiative spearheaded by NITI Aayog, Kerala has emerged on top as far as overall performance is concerned. But in terms of incremental progress, it ranks 21 because the targets for many of the indicators by which the States are being measured were achieved by Kerala way...
More »Making health insurance work -K Srinath Reddy
-The Hindu The National Health Protection Scheme is disconnected from primary care. It also needs to be scaled up It is unusual for a health programme to become the most prominent feature of a Union Budget. The previous government missed the bus when it failed to implement the recommendations of the High-Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage (2011). Yet, those recommendations resonate in the Budget of 2018, with commitment to universal...
More »What the US Health Insurance Programme Can Teach India -Rama V Baru
-TheWire.in Why has India chosen the path of expanding medical insurance instead of a more comprehensive approach to health? The concern with rising inequities in access to medical care, rising out-of-pocket expenditures and unmet treatment needs have been addressed with yet another targeted medical insurance scheme for poor households. The idea of a targeted medical insurance is not new. Several southern states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had introduced such schemes many...
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