Government should provide free health services to poor: Kaushik Basu

NEW DELHI: Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu on Friday said that the government should consider providing free health care for the poor and significantly increase its spending on the health sector.

Citing examples of other developing nations like Bangladesh that have better life expectancy and infant mortality rate than India, Basu added that the country has not yet attached adequate importance to the health sector which might prove detrimental for the overall economy in the long run.

"Health is major driver of economic growth and development and it doesn't get the importance it deserves", Kaushik Basu said while addressing a conference organized by Indian Health Economics and Policy Association.

"Twenty years down the road things like health can be far more critical for the economy than the things on which we currently focus our day-to-day policy on", Basu added.

India's life expectancy is 64 years and infant mortality rate is 50 per 1000 infants. Even as India has better per capita income figures than Bangladesh, Basu said that the latter fares better in health indicators.