Draft National Health Policy 2015, India: Hype, Hopes and Despair

The Draft National Health Policy 2015 (NHP 2015), only the third such policy in independent India is far more progressive than earlier two policies in more than one way. For one thing, there is an explicit acknowledgment of the sustained inequity in health care access and health outcomes in India; the need to deliberate and bring in ‘Right to Health Care Act’; a proposal of for adopting an approach of ‘cess for health’ towards generating more funds for health drawing upon a similar approach used to help realise the ‘Right to Education Act’. It is also better developed with the addition of separate sections on important themes, such as, regulatory framework, governance, e-health platforms, and health research.