India wants to reduce common man's expenditure on health

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) The Indian government is mulling a national health mission to reduce the common man's spending on health care.

A group has been constituted for preparing a comprehensive background paper for this purpose, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

Public health being a state subject, the government has been supplementing the efforts of the states and union territories under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to the rural population, he said.

In 2013, the National Health Mission (NHM) was approved subsuming NRHM and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as its sub-missions with the vision of attaining universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services to all the population.

Under the NHM, financial support is provided to states for strengthening their health care systems.