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Episode details

World Service,26 Sep 2018,26 mins

India Health: Will Modicare be a Success?

Health Check

Available for over a year

Modicare - the ambitious new health funding system named after the Indian Prime Minister – was launched this week. Taxes on the middle and upper classes will fund the world’s biggest government-funded health care project – paying for hospital treatment for the country’s 100 million poorest families. It will cost $1.7 billion and the very first patients received hospital treatment under the ambitious scheme on Sunday. The Netherlands might be a small country but its people have grown rapidly over the last 200 years, now regularly topping the list of the world’s tallest people. Adult men in Holland measure on average1 m 85 – that’s 6 foot in height while the people of some other nations such as the US are falling behind. In the past this has been put down to improved diet and living conditions in the Netherlands. But a new study in the north of country has found that natural selection may also be playing a part. Does watching an action movie really grip you? People might give films a higher rating - because they stimulate their sense of sight as well as hearing. But according to new research from University College London it’s audio recordings which cause our hearts to race more, as well as making us sweat – tell-tale signs that the experience provokes an emotional response. (Photo:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Credit: Getty Images)

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