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Booster Dose
With record healthcare expenditure and allocations focussing on mitigating the impact of Covid-19, it s a shot in the arm for the sector
Illustration by Raj Verma
The highest-ever healthcare allocation in a budget will provide the much-needed boost to the ailing economy, and pave the way for a robust, holistic public healthcare infrastructure to tackle future pandemics, according to industry experts.
The Budget outlay for Health and Wellbeing for 2021/22 came in at a record Rs 2,23,846 crore, a 137 per cent increase over this year s Budget estimate of Rs 94,452 crore. It is about 1.6 per cent of India s projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Rs 134.4 lakh crore for 2020/21. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who earmarked Rs 35,000 crore for Coronavirus vaccination as a short-term overall reset to correct the ailing economy, also announced a two-pronged strategy after listening to experts in the sector.
Express News Service
BENGALURU: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 2,23,846 crore in the Budget for health and wellbeing which is an increase of 137 per cent as compared to last year. Though this has brought cheer to the health sector, some experts said that the budget could have done more. Dr B S Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman, HCG, said, “India is in dire need of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC), which was not well articulated in the finance minister’s budget today.
It is good that we are spending Rs 35,000 crore on the Covid vaccine. The overall spending should have been more because we started from a very low base post-Covid. The government spending only 1.5 per cent of the GDP on healthcare is insufficient. While it is good to focus on preventive healthcare and wellness clinics, the government’s intention on cooperating with the private sector is still unclear. A levy similar to education cess could have been created in healthcare to bring uniform
Economic Survey 2020-21
The Union Finance Ministry on Friday pressed on the need for higher public spending on healthcare, its accessibility and affordability.
As health is a state subject in India, spending on healthcare by the states matters the most when examining government healthcare spendings, according to the Economic Survey 2020-21, which was presented in the Parliament on Friday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
According to the National Health Accounts, 2017, 66 per cent of spending on healthcare is done by the states.
In terms of healthcare budget, India ranks 179 out of 189 countries in prioritisation accorded to health in its government budgets. This is similar to donor-dependent countries such as Haiti and Sudan.