Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: To make the health-care delivery mechanism more effective and provide greater freedom to the states in fund utilisation, the National Health Mission is all set to be renamed National Health Assurance Mission from the next fiscal.

The spending under the central scheme faces obstacles at the implementation, integration and application level. In the new format, the states will have the freedom to utilise the money according to their local health care needs and demands.

Speaking to The Telegraph here on the sidelines of a regional consultation organised by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the organisation's president K. Srinath Reddy said: "The PHFI and other stake holders have proposed the renaming of the National Health Mission to National Health Assurance Mission. There is every likelihood of the Centre accepting the proposal as the new objective of the mission would be to ensure that health-care delivery percolates down to the grassroots-level.''

Reddy also highlighted the low spending of the government in the health sector in contrast to developed countries.

"Government spending is in the health sector is still very low in India. While governments in the US and the UK, who are advocates of free market policy, contribute 84 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively, to the total health sector spending, in India it is 30.5 per cent,'' he said.

Data provided by the government of India says that 63 million Indians are slipping below the poverty line only because of their excess spending on medical bills.

"Realising such a drastic fact, we have moved the Centre to have a National Health Policy, but since January 2015 the policy is still lying as a draft. If the primary health centre level health-care facility can improve, then India can save a lot of money on secondary and tertiary care," said Reddy, who is also a well-known cardiologist and president of World Heart Federation.

Reddy, a former head of the department at the cardiology department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said: "States would be getting more money to spend in the health sector following increase in states' share from central taxation revenue from 32 per cent to 42 per cent according to the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission. This financial push would call for better health-care assurance for people from all walks of life.''

Director of Indian Institute of Public Health, a regional institute under PHFI, Lipika Nanda said: "The Bhubaneswar consultation will be part of four regional consultations to discuss health-care issues relating to health assurance for all. The three others will be held at Gandhinagar, Hyderabad and New Delhi. Thereafter, a national consultation will work on the final recommendations for a pan-Indian health-care assurance policy and framework.''