हेल्थ बजटः सरकार की 9 प्राथमिकताओं में सेहत नहीं: स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं को जितने की जरूरत उससे 73% कम अलॉटमेंट

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In the budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 9 priorities for developed India.
But health services have not found a place in these priorities of the government.
The biggest announcement regarding health in this budget was the exemption in customs duty on cancer medicines and equipment.
The government has reduced the customs duty on 3 important cancer medicines to zero. Now there will be no tax on the import of these medicines. Due to which cancer treatment will become cheaper.
Apart from this, the Finance Minister has also talked about opening new medical colleges and hospitals.
A big relief was expected in the Ayushman Bharat scheme from this budget. But no such big announcement has been made.

The government is giving 73% less budget to health than required

The National Health Policy of 2017 had a target of spending 2.5% of GDP on the health sector by 2024-25. This included expenditure by both the central and state governments.
To achieve this target, a total of Rs 8.2 lakh crore should have been spent on the health sector this year. In this, the state government had to spend 60% and the remaining 40% was to be spent by the central government.
According to this, the Centre’s health budget should have been Rs 3.3 lakh crore every year, while in the last three budgets it was given Rs 91 thousand crore, Rs 95 thousand crore and Rs 98 thousand crore. On an average, it was only 27% of the requirement.

UPA is ahead in increasing expenditure on health budget, NDA is behind

India’s health budget was Rs 9200 crore in 2004 and Rs 27,147 thousand crore in 2013. That is, the health budget increased by 295% in the ten years of UPA. That is, the average growth rate was 29.5%.

Whereas, during the 10 years of Modi government, i.e., between 2014 and 2023, the health budget increased by 245%. That is, the average growth rate was 24.5%. In this way, NDA spends 4% less on the health budget than the UPA government.

53% of health expenses come from common people’s pockets

The lack of the required share in the budget for the health sector has a direct impact on the pockets of the common people. A World Bank report shows that in India, 53% of the total expenditure on health has to be paid by the people from their own pockets.

Whereas even in high-income developed countries, common people spend only 10 to 15% on their health. The rest of the expenses are borne by the government.

Countries like Nepal and Bhutan spend more on health than India

According to the World Health Organization, the Indian government and the common people together spent 3.2% of the GDP on health in 2023. Whereas, during the same period, this figure was 16% in the US. India’s neighbors Nepal, China and Bhutan also seem to be ahead in this matter. In terms of spending on health, India is ahead only of neighboring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Medicines cost 30 times more than admission

According to the CMIE-CPHS survey, when an Indian spends Rs 100 on treatment, Rs 42.3 of that goes on medicines. Whereas even after including doctor’s fee, hospitalization and medical tests, only Rs 8.6 is spent.

According to the report, after falling ill, the expenses on health enhancement services and medicines put the biggest burden on the pocket.

Lack of funds in the budget, this has a direct impact on health infrastructure

The budget has been received to provide only 27% of the money needed to run the health service in the country properly. That is, 73% less than the requirement. The condition of the health infrastructure in the country is also similar to this figure. Only 37% of the beds are available in the country’s hospitals as compared to the number of beds required.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there should be at least 100 MBBS doctors available for every 1 lakh population. Whereas in India, there are only 70 to 75 doctors available for every 1 lakh population. Whereas, in America, there are 255 doctors for the same population.

Although the number of doctors in India may exceed the WHO standard after including Ayurveda, homeopathy and naturopathy. But WHO does not include traditional medicine in its calculations.