NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet cleared on Wednesday the National Health Policy which puts forward a concrete framework for universal healthcare and suggests policy directives to make free drugs and diagnostic facilities available across the country, besides involving the private sector to make the services widely available, sources said.The policy, which was pending for over two years, also suggests raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP from the current 1.2 per cent. Union health minister J P Nadda is expected to make a statement on the policy in Parliament on Thursday.The policy addresses issues of universal health coverage by making essential drugs, diagnostic facilities and insurance available for all. The idea is to reduce out of pocket expenditure on health.While the final contours of the policy will come up in its detail implementation framework, it suggests increasing private participation and making manufacturing of devices easy for Indian manufacturers. It, however, got stuck following criticism that it was too long and did not provide any mechanism to implement the agenda.Later, the ministry held several rounds of discussions with stakeholders, including states and other government departments, to build consensus. The government, however, dropped from the final draft one of the key proposals to make health a fundamental right.

Source: Times of India March 15, 2017 22:10 UTC