41% rural population borrowed to finance healthcare expenses: govt
J.P. Nadda says as per an analysis of NSSO data, 63.22 million were impoverished due to healthcare expenditure in 2004
New Delhi: Around 41% of rural population and 23% of urban masses relied on borrowings for financing expenditure on hospitalization, the government on Tuesday said.
“As per the NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) 60th round (2004) report on morbidity, healthcare and condition of the aged, about 41% of rural population and 23% of urban population relied on borrowings for financing the expenditure on hospitalisation," health minister J.P. Nadda informed the 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 vulnerable groups.
Nadda 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 immunization programme providing seven vaccine preventable diseases, pulse polio programme, family planning and 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 proteins for urban and rural areas of the country. “According to the report Nutritional Intake in India, 2011-12 published in October 2014 by the NSSO, the average dietary energy intake per day per capita was 2,233 Kilocalorie in rural India and 2,206 Kcal for urban India," Nadda said. He said that the protien intake (gm) per day per capita (2011-12) in rural areas is 60.7% while in urban areas is 60.3%.
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