The biggest takeaway for healthcare from the budget was a signal of the government’s continued commitment to providing health insurance. This should put at rest speculation on the direction the National Health Mission (NHM) would take. Budgetary allocation to health insurance has increased sharply.
Allocation for health insurance in the 2016-17 budget was Rs.1,500 crore. A revised estimate for the current financial year shows expenditure of Rs.595 crore. This is an increase of 152% within one year for the Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, or National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), a new nomenclature for the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Under the NHPS, the finance minister announced a cover of Rs.1 lakh per family. An additional cover of Rs.30,000 was announced for senior citizens.
“It looks like insurance is the direction that universal health coverage and NHM are taking. There is clear emphasis on insurance,” said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the non-profit Public Health Foundation of India.
After the report of the high-level expert group on universal health coverage (UHC) of the erstwhile Planning Commission came out in 2011, the debate on UHC revolved around two possibilities—insurance cover to patients or provision of free medicines and diagnostics.
The debate was carried forward with the announcement of the NHM two years ago. With an increase in the insurance coverage without any mention of provision of free medicines in its latest budget, the government has indicated that it will follow the health insurance model in the coming years.
On medicines, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the centre planned to open 3,000 Jan Aushadhi stores offering affordable generic medicines. Currently, India has a total of 137 such stores in 19 states.
0 Comments