At Budget’s Threshold: Addressing Requisite Changes In Health Programs
The success against Covid-19 enabled 2022 to be a year of recovery for the healthcare sector. The year kicked off with the sector battling against Covid and ended on a high note with the administration of the landmark 200 crore vaccine doses. The Union Budget 2022–23 allocated INR 86,200 crore to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, up 16.5 per cent from the allocation of 2020–21. This constituted 2.1 per cent of the overall GDP of the nation.
However, India's public expenditure on health is the lowest among the BRICS nations. The World Health Organization states that countries should spend 5 per cent of their national income on health care services. This gap is supposed to be plugged by the private sector. However, the private sector too has huge expectations from the upcoming budget 2023-24.
When it comes to medical tourism, India has re-established pre-pandemic levels, generating USD 6 billion for the industry. This is expected to reach USD13 billion by 2026 backed by the government's "Heal in India" initiative. This is expected to be reinforced by India's G20 presidency.
A total of Rs 86,200 crore was earmarked for healthcare in Union Budget 2022-23. The centrally sponsored public health schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), Human Resources for Health and Medical Education, and PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) received their shares from the budget. While the National Telemental Health Programme was a much-needed step to enable access to high-quality mental health counselling, the National Health Digital Ecosystem was a significant statement in the budget for last year, even though it could have used more funding.
Let’s go through the imperative expectations regarding the government’s programmes and their allocations as we head towards the budget on the 1st of February.
The R&D
The research and development part of the budget is less than 1 per cent of the GDP. The Department of Health Research received INR 3,201 crore in the Budget 2022-23, a 4% increase over revised estimates of INR 3,080 crore for 2021-22. With India aspiring to make a mark in advance medical research, higher allocation is expected in R&D.
"The increase in the share of healthcare and pharma spending in the upcoming budget is imperative. It is essential to allocate separate funds for R&D, formulation and API. Additionally, it needs to put a deeper focus on quality manufacturing and the adoption of innovation and technology in terms of formulation manufacturing, diagnostics, packaging, medical devices among others. Government incentives and grants for cost-intensive research are also anticipated," said Sanjeev Jain, Managing Director, Akums Drugs & Pharmaceuticals.
The Insurance Coverage
A middle-class family is just a medical expense away from falling into the abyss of poverty. The government wants to The PM-JAY covers nearly the bottom 40 per cent poor and vulnerable population of the country, which are identified based on select deprivation and occupational criteria in rural and urban areas, respectively, via the 2011 socio-economic caste census (SECC) 2011. Howbeit, with the middle class being the backbone of its economy, PM-JAY is expected to broaden its scope and include the health expenditure of middle-class families.
Capex
The government outlayed INR 64,120 cr for the implementation of PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) scheme to boost healthcare infrastructure. The World Bank has approved a loan of USD 1 billion to provide support to India's flagship PM-ABHIM programme.
"In order to attract more private sector investment in Tier 2 and 3 cities of India, healthcare should be given Infrastructure status which will enable access to low-cost funding as well as provide tax benefits, further reducing input costs. The RBI incentivised liquidity for emergency healthcare services by extending credit under priority-sector classification, this move should be made permanent, particularly for projects focused on creating infrastructure in Rural India," said Prateek Ghosal, Chief Strategy Officer, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals.
Disease free India
The National Health Mission envisages Universal health access to health care. It is one of the most fundamental pillar when it comes to tackling diseases ranging from reproduction, maternal health, neonatal health, child and adolescent health, communicable and non communicable diseases, etc. The budget 2022-23 allocated of 37000 cr for National Health Mission which was an increase of 1.2 per cent compared to 2021-22. The budget allocation for the National Health Mission has remained somewhat stagnant over the past few years. thus there is a need to provide more allocation impetus to the NHM for achieving goals regarding Maternal Mortality Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and TB Free India.
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