The BJP led NDA government would give top priority to health sector and the government plan to announce new programmes and schemes in its first budget which would be presented in parliament on July 11.The government plan to start health card programme in view to provide health insurance poor people of the society. All are aware that the programme was implemented in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state when the YS Rajasekhara Reddy was in Chief Minister post. According plan to give high priority to health sector and decided to strengthen the ongoing National health Assurance Mission programmes. The government continues fight against mosquito’s to build mosquito free India. The government already declared that they prepared plan set up All India Institute of Medical Sciences in each state including newly farmed states.
Health subject is most priority subject of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was showing interest protecting the health of the poorest of the poor of the society. He was advised official to take up special programme to create awareness in the poor people about health. The Budget, through the health assurance mission, will try to deliver on Modi’s and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election promise of a holistic healthcare system that integrates indigenous health systems like Ayurveda and is universally accessible, affordable and effective. The BJP manifesto had promised such a mission “with a clear mandate to provide universal health care that is not only accessible and affordable but also effective, and reduces the OOP (out-of-pocket) spending for the common man”.The mission will borrow from Modi’s experiences as chief minister of Gujarat and the existing and new health schemes will be brought under this programme. Some of the new steps proposed will try to replicate the success of some of Gujarat’s health schemes like the Chiranjeevi Yojana and Mukhyamantri Amrutam Yojana. Chiranjeevi Yojana, launched in 2006 in the state, aimed to reduce the infant mortality rate by encouraging women to deliver in hospitals. It was assisted by the ‘108’ ambulance service, which the new government wants to universalise in India. Mukhyamantri Amrutam Yojana was launched in 2012 to provide an insurance cover of up to Rs 2 lakh for critical illnesses to those below the poverty line.
As Gujarat chief minister, Modi increased the budgetary spending on the health sector from 2.69 per cent of gross state domestic product in 2006-07 to 3.24 per cent by 2009-10, according to CII data. Modi had claimed last year that the Gujarat government increased its spending on the health sector from Rs 800 crore in 2001 to Rs 5,500 crore. Other objectives of the new government in the health sector are reviewing the 2002 healthcare policy and initiating a new health policy, augmenting the shortfall of healthcare professionals, universalization of emergency medical services ‘108’, and introducing sanitation rankings to measure and rank cities and towns for cleanliness.
