For ailing health system, a new policy but no cure

The government's 2017 policy is unlikely to deliver better than the 2002 one

India’s health scene is marked by a highly inadequate public healthcare system and, what usually goes with such a situation, patients having to spend huge amounts of their own money. So when a new national health policy is announced (National Health Policy 2017), it is eagerly scanned to see if it has been able to put its finger on the pulse — list what needs doing for things to work where they must.
 
But hope is tempered by the fact that health is a state subject and most of official spending, low by normative standards, is done by state