The pharmaceutical industry and healthcare providers like hospitals will be waiting to see if Budget 2017 delivers on several promises that successive Governments have been making on health. The promise of increasing healthcare spending from the meagre one per cent of GDP to at least 2.5 per cent has been hanging fire for several years now. Previous Budgets have also made social security and health insurance promises that have not taken off for lack of clarity on how it would be rolled out and who foots the bill. Drug-makers have long stopped having expectations from the Budget, with their pleas for incentives for research and patent-filing etc. not bearing fruits. Will Finance Minister Arun Jaitley be different this time?
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