The Union health ministry has issued the much awaited draft National Health Policy 2015 which is a declaration of the determination of the government to leverage economic growth to achieve health outcomes and an explicit acknowledgment that better health contributes immensely to improved productivity as well as to equity.
The Policy addresses the urgent need to improve the performance of health systems in the country.
Main objectives of this policy are to improve population health status through concerted policy action in all sectors and expand preventive, promotive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative services provided by the public health sector; achieve a significant reduction in out of pocket expenditure due to health care costs and reduction in proportion of households experiencing catastrophic health expenditures and consequent impoverishment; assure universal availability of free, comprehensive primary health care services, as an entitlement, for all aspects of reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health and for the most prevalent communicable and non-communicable diseases in the population; and enable universal access to free essential drugs, diagnostics, emergency ambulance services, and emergency medical and surgical care services in public health facilities, so as to enhance the financial protection role of public facilities for all sections of the population.
The policy also aims to ensure improved access and affordability of secondary and tertiary care services through a combination of public hospitals and strategic purchasing of services from the private health sector; and influence the growth of the private health care industry and medical technologies to ensure alignment with public health goals, and enable contribution to making health care systems more effective, efficient, rational, safe, affordable and ethical.
The primary aim of this policy is to inform, clarify, strengthen and prioritise the role of the government in shaping health systems in all its dimensions- investment in health, organisation and financing of healthcare services, prevention of diseases and promotion of good health through cross sectoral action, access to technologies, developing human resources, encouraging medical pluralism, building the knowledge base required for better health, financial protection strategies and regulation and legislation for health.
The other goal of this 58-page long policy document is the attainment of the highest possible level of good health and well-being, through a preventive and promotive healthcare orientation in all developmental policies, and universal access to good quality health care services without anyone having to face financial hardship as a consequence.