THE HEALTH MAKEOVER

Providing adequate and quality healthcare to a large population is a challenge. The immediate task is to provide affordable treatment and tackle the burden of spiraling non-communicable diseases

- SONALI ACHARJEE

India's healthcare system and parameters have improved in the past decade. We have implemented the world's largest insurance scheme, improved doctor-patient ratio and begun reducing critical indicators such as maternal and child mortality and the burden of various diseases. However, if the country is ever to be at par with advanced healthcare systems such as the US, Japan or the UK, there has to be more financial investment. According to the medical journal Lancet, government spending on health has declined, hovering at a meagre 1.2 per cent of the GDP in the past few years. The government, though, says its expenditure has increased, from 1.13 per cent in 2014-15 to 1.35 per cent of the GDP in 2019-20. This is expected to hit 2.5 per cent by 2025, as per the National Health Policy, 2017.