-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's government-funded health insurance schemes have increased patients' access to hospitalisation but failed to reduce their households' personal out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, the most comprehensive review of the schemes so far has found. The review by public health analysts has found increases ranging from 12 per cent to 244 per cent in hospital-based services across the country since the schemes were launched a decade ago. But there is no...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has decided to write to all state governments asking them to launch a crackdown on outdoor advertisements of traditional medicines that claim to "magically" cure various illnesses and cosmetic problems. Sources in the Union information and broadcasting ministry said the letters will be sent out following a nudge from the Union ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. The Ayush ministry, a few months...

-Hindustan Times Lucknow: Life has been a story of setbacks for Sarju Devi, a resident of Maurawa road in Mohanlalganj, but she is a fighter. The woman in her late 60s has faced struggle – be it at the time when she lost her husband, or when her young son was diagnosed with last-stage-abdominal cancer. But what happened on Tuesday left her crestfallen. On the day, Sarju couldn’t control her emotions when...

-The Hindu MSF Secretary General Jerome Oberreit on the increasing threat to affordable health care worldwide. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors without Borders, the international humanitarian medical aid organisation that is active in 69 countries, serves populations affected by epidemics, armed conflicts, natural calamities and manmade disasters. MSF has relied heavily on generic drugs, much of which has been sourced from India, to deliver health care to some of the most...

-Hindustan Times India’s generic drug manufacturers have flooded the market with cheaper medicines to treat hepatitis C after Gilead Sciences Inc’s patent application was rejected in January 2015. Thanks to domestic drugmakers, the world is looking to India to reduce the price of hepatitis C drug further. “By scaling up the production of generic medicines, India is playing a pivotal role globally in reducing the prices of medicines for hepatitis C,” said Henk...