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The deaths of children due to encephalitis in Bihar’s Muzzafarpur and the nationwide doctors’ strike has sparked concerns over state of healthcare in the country.
The crisis has presented a strong case for the long-pending increase in the government’s healthcare spends.
But Budget 2019 did not go down that road. The sparse mention of health in the Budget speech came as a surprise for healthcare workers, and representatives of the pharmaceutical and medical device industry — also a vital part of the healthcare landscape. Also, the Centre’s largely remained silent on flagship Ayushman Bharat programme that aimed to provide healthcare coverage to those with limited economic means.
The government’s policy statement talks of spending 2.5 per cent of the GDP by 2025. But the present spending, though higher, is nowhere close to this target, said Sakthivel Selvaraj , health economist with the Public Health Foundation of India.
And though the Centre may treat this Budget as “work in progress” on their larger vision, Ayushman Bharat in particular needed to see a larger financial commitment given its ambition to provide ₹5 lakh insurance to 10 crore families annually. The allocation at ₹6,400 crore falls short of the fund required for the programme, he added.
“It is appalling that since last three years , it is the first budget with zero mention of healthcare, not even higher allocation for Ayushman Bharat,” said Rajiv Nath with the Association for Indian Medical Device Industry. Nath also expressed dismay over not finding measures to “stem the tsunami of (medical device) imports” that has increased by 24 per cent at ₹38,800 crore and is “crushing Indian manufacturing system”.
Pharma industry
Pharmaceutical industry, too, remained disappointed due tothe absence of strong measures to support them. Besides the expectation on tax sops and support for small and medium enterprises, the pharmaceutical industry was hoping for some direction on bulk drugs and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, which are used to make medicines. Presently, there is huge dependence on China for APIs.
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