NEW DELHI: The health budget saw a meagre hike of 3.46%, with a total allotment of Rs 89,155 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24, as against last year’s Rs 86,200 crore (budget estimate). Though Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stressed on research and innovation, the Department of Health Research, under the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, saw a 9% dip in budget allocation, getting Rs 2,980 crore, down from last year’s Rs 3,200 crore.
Announcing a new initiative in pharmaceuticals, Sitharaman said, “A new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centres of excellence. We shall also encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas”. Select Indian Council of Medical Research labs would have facilities for research by faculty of medical colleges and private sector R&D teams to encourage “collaborative research.”
Sitharaman also announced setting up of 157 new nursing colleges and a project to eliminate sickle cell anaemia, a blood disorder commonly seen among the tribals, by 2047. This time, no funds were set aside for Covid-19 vaccination.
According to former director of Public Health Foundation of India, Dr K S Reddy, “The budget signals a shift from Covid-driven commitment to health to infrastructure-led economic development. Given the expanded mandate of comprehensive primary healthcare in both rural and urban areas, the National Health Mission should have had a higher allocation.”
As per Dr Sarit Kumar Rout, Additional Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health Bhubaneswar, “Health and health research allocations have gone up by less than 4%, which is not even inflation adjusted.” Two government schemes got considerable hike this time. The Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, which aims to fill gaps in health infrastructure, was allocated Rs 4,200 crore as against Rs 4,176 crore last year while the National Digital Health Mission got Rs 341 crore against Rs 200 crore last year.
Also, the government’s flagship health insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, under which nearly 50 crore people receive cashless hospitalisation benefits of up to Rs 5 lakh, was allocated Rs 7,200 crore, higher than the Rs 6,412 crore given in 2022-23.
Calling the budget “disappointing”, former Union health secretary Sujatha Rao said, “Barring setting up 157 nursing colleges, there is nothing else for health, which is crying for huge capital investment and some financial risk protection for the lower middle classes.”
The plan to set up more nursing colleges also didn’t cheer the medical fraternity. “I oppose the plan of creating buildings and not opportunities,” Dr Rohan Krishnan, chairman, FAIMA Doctors Association, told this newspaper. The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry coordinator Rajiv Nath said the budget had no announcement for the medical device industry, which is heavily dependent on imports.
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