National Overview and Health Policy (India)
We begin our collection with the National Health Policy 2017. We then add two comments on that policy. The first of these “National Health Policy – A Cautious Welcome:” is on the policy itself. And the second of these “Ayushman Bharat- Hopes and Fears” is on a scheme proposed as part of the implementation of the National Health Policy.
We then also share two important documents that went into the making of this policy. The first of these is a public document, which has seldom been referred to – and is the “Situational Analyses- Backdrop to The National Health Policy” on which this policy was made. The other is the Draft National Health Policy,2015 which was approved by the Steering Committee that made the policy and which was put up for public consultation on December 31st, 2014. It is a useful referral document to understand the intense discussions that went into adoption of the final policy.
The larger questions that form the core of contestation on the making of health policy in this decade formed the content of the article- “Health sector reform at the COVID-19 cross-roads: Public goods or health markets – An agenda for health systems research. “Published in Indian J Public Health 2021; This had been earlier presented as the KN Rao Memorial Annual Lecture that same year.
We also enclose an earlier more descriptive article on this theme “Health Sector in India: Perspective and Way Forward” published In Yojana, February 2016.