With an aim to renew focus on health sector during the Budget Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a presentation from Niti Aayog bureaucrats on February 16 on the steps to improve the ailin
With an aim to renew focus on health sector during the Budget Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a presentation from Niti Aayog bureaucrats on February 16 on the steps to improve the ailing system.
Importantly, the Cabinet secretary and the finance ministry will also have a review meeting with the health ministry officials before the Budget Session.
The planning body has already had an elaborate meeting in the Union health ministry where the officials discussed the present scenario and how the health sector can be improved further, sources disclosed. The presentation before the PM, sources said, will revolve around the resources.
“The Niti Aayog would see whether with the resources that have gone in things can be taken forward or it needs a change of track. The health ministry has provided the recent data about the health indicators, which the Niti Aayog will require for the presentation before the PM,” sources said.
Ironically, the Niti Aayog had earlier objected to increasing investments and focusing on public health sector as well as providing free drugs and diagnostics. It had also recommended that the private sector and insurance-based models be given a greater role in a public health system. These views were in contrast to the health ministry’s redrafted National Health Policy. The meeting on February 16 therefore would be significant.
The PM had earlier reviewed the progress of works across various infrastructure sectors. The PM had reviewed progress and new initiatives taken in areas of renewable energy, irrigation, railways, road and piped natural gas with the Niti Aayog. “The focus of the PM is now on social sectors,” sources added.
Officials believe that the flurry of activities to an otherwise “neglected” sector could also be due to improvement in the health indicators in the recent National Family Health Survey (NGHS)-IV. Even the Cabinet secretary is slated to review the National Health Mission next week and the finance ministry too will take a presentation of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana soon.
