Nursing the nation

The private sector provides nearly three-fourths of the expenditure on health

The image of Dana Majhi carrying his dead wife on his shoulder in Odisha comes easily to mind when one thinks of the country’s rickety health infrastructure. The National Health Policy, which has just been announced, aims to increase the public expenditure of health to 2.5 per cent of GDP. But there is always the proverbial lag between desire and fulfilment. At the beginning of the Eleventh 

Plan period (2007-12), the public expenditure on health was below one per cent and was projected to reach 2 per cent at the end of the period. But it has reached that figure