Healthy stimulus

Govt should increase expenditure on health care

The Centre and the governments of Delhi and Maharashtra took great pride in the mammoth temporary facilities that were set up to cope with the surging rates of Covid-19 infections. But this satisfaction is misplaced, because these facilities underscored like nothing else the appalling inadequacy of public health care in India. The pandemic has also brought into sharp focus the culpable reluctance of private-sector hospitals, most of which have come up on local government concessions, to step up to the plate during this unique crisis. In urban areas, it was possible for state administrations to arm-twist private hospitals to divert