The Finance Minister has presented a comprehensive budget covering the livelihood of India’s soul – its rural population. The Union Budget 2016-17 seems to be aimed at putting more money in the hands of the citizens.
The three specific initiatives that will go a long way in creating an educated, healthier and stronger India are the government’s aim to double income of farmers in five years; new initiatives to increase irrigation access, and its objective to skill 1-crore youth in the next three years. It is commendable that the budget envisages encouraging the National Skill Mission, which will play a very significant role in health sector providing multi-skill training and employment both within and outside the country.
Healthcare has finally taken center stage in the Budget. Catastrophic health events are the single most important cause of unforeseen out-of-pocket expenditure which pushes lakhs of households below the poverty line every year. Serious illness of family members cause severe stress on the financial circumstances of poor and economically weak families, shaking the foundation of their economic security.
The Health Protection Scheme of Rs 1 lakh to cover unforeseen illness in poor families with an additional Rs 30,000 for senior citizens is a long-awaited and welcome step in deepening access. In addition, the government’s plan to add 3,000 pharmacies under the Jan Aushadhi Yojana to provide generic drugs at affordable rates is a commendable move.
Public and Private sectors need to work together to bring awareness on early detection. The Finance Minister, using the power of ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’ announced working with private sector on a National Dialysis Services Programme, which could not have come at a better time, given the burgeoning growth of non-communicable diseases.
The World Economic Forum has predicted that the increasing NCD burden will cost India close to a sum of $5 trillion in terms of loss of output between 2012 and 2030. The government has realised the need to take steps to counter NCDs and has addressed one of the issues around dialysis in the budget. According to the Finance Minister, the dialysis services programme will be made available in all district hospitals on a public-private partnership model and on behalf of all the healthcare private sector providers, we welcome this endeavour.
We sincerely hope to work together with the government to take effective steps to wage a war on non-communicable diseases, where the clock has started ticking from January 1, 2015. The steps taken by the government are in the right direction towards ensuring healthcare access to all citizens. We commend the initiatives and hope the plans would translate into necessary actions.
(The writer is the chairman of Apollo Hospitals)
