41% rural people borrowed to finance healthcare expenses: Govt
13 May 2015 7:35 AM IST
Around 41 per cent of rural population and 23 <g data-gr-id="34">per cent</g> of urban masses relied on borrowings for financing expenditure on hospitalisation, the government on Tuesday said. “As per the NSSO 60th round (2004) report on Morbidity, Healthcare and Condition of the Aged, about 41 per cent of rural population and 23 per cent of urban population relied on borrowings for financing the expenditure on hospitalisation,” Health Minister J P Nadda informed Rajya Sabha.
He said that as per one analysis of NSSO 2004 data, around 63.22 million people were impoverished due to healthcare expenditure in 2004.
Nadda said that under the National Health Mission (NHM) which encompasses the National Rural Health Mission and the National Urban Health Mission, support is provided to states to strengthen their healthcare delivery system to provide equitable, accessible, affordable and quality healthcare with focus on addressing health needs of the poor and <g data-gr-id="27">vulnarable</g> groups.
He said that under this support, many services are expected to be provided free of cost to all citizens who access these services at public health facilities and the services include maternal health, universal immunisation programme providing seven <g data-gr-id="26">vaccine preventable</g> diseases, pulse polio programme, family planning, communicable diseases amongst others.
Replying to another question, Nadda said that the NSSO also conducts nationwide household consumer expenditure surveys at regular interval which provide information on consumption of food in terms of calories and <g data-gr-id="19">protiens</g> for urban and rural areas of the country.
58% immunisation rate in rural, 67% in urban: govt
The current immunisation rate in rural areas is around 58 per cent while it is over 67 per cent in urban regions of the country, the government on Tuesday said and attributed lack of awareness among parents and <g data-gr-id="56">non</g>- availability of vaccines as the reasons behind the low rate. "The current immunisation rate in urban India is 67.4 per cent and that in rural India is 58.5 per cent. "The reasons for the low rate of immunisation are lack of awareness among the parents about the benefits of vaccination, fear of side-effects of vaccination (adverse events following immunisation) and non-availability of vaccines or vaccinators at session sites etc," Health Minister JP Nadda said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
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