NEW DELHI, Apr 17:
Maintaining that providing equitable health care to all is its priority, Government today said it is taking steps to launch an Urban Health Mission in the near future on the lines of the NRHM.
“The Government of India accords great importance to ensuring equitable health care to all its citizens. The National Rural Health Mission is an ambitious multi-sectoral initiative taken by the Government of India in 2005-06 to make essential health care available, accessible and affordable to the rural citizens,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said here today.
Inaugurating the two-day deliberations of WHO South East Asian Region’s meeting on Universal Health Coverage, Azad said, “Learning from this experience we intend to launch the Urban Health Mission in the near future.”
“It is a matter of grave concern that people in our region have the highest out-of-pocket expenditures on health as compared to anywhere in the world. In India, out of the total out-of-pocket expenses, nearly 62 per cent is incurred by the rural populations,” he said.
There is sufficient evidence and experience that indicates Universal Health Coverage is a potential tool that can reduce prevalent health inequities, contribute to human development and accelerate the quest for health for all, he said.
He hoped international experience in covering populations like disadvantaged, marginalized and hard to reach sections in rural areas would help India.
Health experts from the 11 Member States of WHO’s South- East Asia Region met here on April 16-17 to brainstorm about universal health care in the region. “Equity remains the underpinning principle that we must not lose sight of,” Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO’s South-Asia regional director said. (PTI)
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