A weak prescription: New health policy is just old wine in new bottle

2017 policy falls well short of expectations

The Union Cabinet last week approved a new national health policy that will replace the existing one put in place by the previous National Democratic Alliance government in 2002. The 2017 policy was unveiled after a long series of discussions. While the official press release characterised it as a “huge milestone in the history of the health sector in the country”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised it on Twitter as “comprehensive & futuristic”. To be sure, on the face of it, there is little to not like in what the policy sets out to achieve. The big-ticket change is the