New Delhi: The first full Budget of the second Modi government makes a 23 per cent higher allocation for health than the 2018-19 Budget, continuing the trend of increased allocations for the backbone sector witnessed in its maiden term.
The health allocation in Budget 2019-20 stands at Rs 64,999 crore, up from Rs 52,800 crore in 2018-19.
In its first term, the Modi government, credited with launching the world’s largest government-funded health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, increased the health allocation by an average of over 20 per cent with every Budget.
This was way ahead of the preceding UPA-II administration led by Manmohan Singh, where the annual hike hovered in the neighbourhood of 12 per cent.
Also read: Budget 2019 will boost growth only if Modi govt is friendly towards business and profits
The numbers
The Modi government presented its first full Budget in February 2015, for FY 2015-16. Since then, the health allocation has increased by an average of 21.83 per cent every year.
In 2015-16, the government allocated Rs 29,653 crore for the sector, and Rs 37,062 crore in 2016-17. This was increased to Rs 47,352 crore in 2017-18, marking the highest year-on-year boost for health allocation in a decade, 27 per cent.
In comparison, the second Manmohan Singh government’s first full budget, presented in July 2009 for FY 2009-10, made a health allocation of Rs 21,113 crore. This was increased by 11.4 per cent to Rs 23,530 crore in 2010-11. In 2011-12, the allocation stood at Rs 26,897 crore, an increase of 14.3 per cent. In 2013-14, the allocation rose by 5.75 per cent to Rs 33,278 crore, from Rs 30,702 crore in 2012-13.
Also, the Modi government consistently overshot the allocation in its first term, spending, on average, over 7.24 per cent more than the sum set aside. The UPA-II, meanwhile, under-utilised the allocation by 8.83 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
Increase in budget welcome but not enough, say experts
Health experts welcomed the increased sum set aside for the sector, but pointed out that the government needed to do much more.
“The budget numbers had some positive news for the health sector. This is critical, especially as it follows the Economic Survey, which again highlighted India’s stagnant expenditure on health as a proportion of GDP,” Avani Kapur, a fellow at the Delhi-based thinktank Centre for Policy Research (CPR), told ThePrint.
“While the increase in health budget is a good sign, the government needs to do more, considering the sad state of affairs of health infrastructure across India,” she said. “This is critical as the past years have seen a decline in investments in reproductive and child healthcare and, worryingly, the number of public health facilities meeting standards has been falling.”
Hitesh Sharma, a partner for life sciences at consultancy E&Y, echoed her concerns.
“The government is consistently increasing the spend, which is a healthy sign. However, this is not enough, as they have increased the expenditure through schemes like Ayushman Bharat,” he said. “We are going in the right direction but we need impetus on infrastructure growth in healthcare.”
India’s healthcare infrastructure often comes under scrutiny for being ill-equipped. Just last month, over 100 children died in Bihar amid a suspected encephalitis outbreak that the state’s ailing healthcare infrastructure failed to control.
The second instalment of Niti Aayog’s annual health index, released last month, showed a decline in scores for several states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, besides Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
Meanwhile, the 2019-20 budget failed to increase the allocation for several programmes such as the National Mental Health Programme, and National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke.
“Issues of public health importance such as zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance have also been left out,” said Dr K.K. Aggarwal, a former president of the Indian Medical Association, the representative body for Indian doctors. “We are going in the right direction but the government needs to do more.”
Also read: How Kerala beat UP and all others on Niti Aayog Health Index