As of yesterday, the Union Budget had been released by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Focusing on a farmer-friendly budget, some are happy with the budget, while others are still disappointed.
Not only have changes been made to the agricultural department, but also to the healthcare sector.
As part of the Union Budget 2018-2019, Arun Jaitley as announced that India is set to get world’s largest healthcare programme for half a billion of its poorest citizens.
The government’s new National Health Protection Scheme, under Ayushman Bharat plan, will cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, Jaitley said, adding that each family would be entitled to up to Rs 5 lakh every year in case of secondary and tertiary hospitalization.
The scheme was quickly dubbed as “ModiCare” by many online, on the line of a healthcare reform law introduced by former US president Barack Obama in 2010, popularly known as “Obamacare”.
The brand-new scheme, said Jaitley, would cover 50 crore people or nearly 40% of the country’s population. The programme would take public healthcare in the world’s largest democracy “to a new aspiration level”, said the finance minister, saying that his government was steadily but surely progressing towards a goal of “universal health coverage.”
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This is a significant move on the health front as several reports by national and international agencies have been pointing out that India accounts for about half of the estimated 100 million people pushed into poverty worldwide every year due to out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare.
The Centre, in 2008 had launched Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, with a coverage amount of only Rs 30,000.
People in the health sector however raised concern that there is no separate allocation indicated for the ambitious health protection plan.
“Taking the base of a similar scheme by Maharashtra government, Centre will need over Rs 10,000 crore for payment to provide the premium of the scheme—the allocation under RSBY however, has been increased from Rs 1000 crore to Rs 2000 crore only,” said Ravi Wankhedkar, president of the Indian Medical Association.
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A source in the health minister, however, said that the contours of the scheme will be finalized later. “Also the additional 1% cess that is being levied on taxpayers is likely to generate Rs 11,000 crore per year—that could help fund this health scheme,” he said.
With a total outlay of Rs 52,800, the budgetary allocation towards health remains just 1.3% of the Gross Domestic Product—and India’s pledge to make the health spending 2.5% of the GDP by 2025 is still a far-fetched dream, experts pointed out.
Also the health budget this year is only marginally higher from last year when it was Rs 48,800 crore (revised estimate).
The government has also decided to upgrade existing 24 district level hospitals into medical colleges to tide over the shortage of medical professionals in the country. “The idea is to have at least one medical college per three parliamentary constituencies,” said Jaitley.
The minister also announced the creation of health and wellness centers, which will “bring healthcare closer to home”. These centers, 1.5 lakh in number, will provide free essential drugs and diagnostic services. A sum of Rs. 1200 crore had been allocated for this.
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Highlights of the health budget
Total allocation- Rs 52,800 crore
National Health Protection Scheme to provide health insurance coverage of up to 5 lakh to 50 crore Indians
24 district level government hospitals to be upgraded as medical colleges
1.5 lakh new wellness and health centers
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