The pandemic has shone light on the truth behind the age old saying, 'Health is wealth'.
Last year's delta wave of the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the sad underbelly of India's health infrastructure.
A country which had, in good times, attracted medical tourists from the world over for planned surgeries, and showcased how "affordable", yet A-class its medical sector was for foreigners, buckled under the load of Covid patients, many of whom gasped to their deaths.
India, which had stopped receiving aid since 2005 humbly accepted gifts of oxygen and medicines from even countries which were otherwise recipients of India's aid.
It can be argued that the pandemic was an extraordinary situation, it even brought the health infrastructure of more developed nations to points of collapse. Yet, there is no argument to justify that the spend on healthcare, specially for those who can least afford it, needs to be upped.
While allocation to health has increased significantly over the decade, the government's expenditure on health as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Produce has only risen by around 0.6 per cent in the same period. Last year's budgetary estimate was 1.6 percent of the GDP. The focus of the government has to be on strengthening universal health care.
Interestingly, last year, when the budget was announced, India has not anticipated its debilitating second wave, and it actually allocated Rs 72.26 thousand crore to health in the Budgetary estimate, even though the revised estimate for 2020-21 was Rs 78.86 thousand crore. Had it believed that the additional expenditure was a one off thing? It couldn't have been more wrong.
India's government spending on health is among the lowest in the world, and experts feel that the government should at least raise it to 2.5 per cent of the GDP. Deloitte India, in a pre-budget expectation pamphlet, has recommended "reintroducing tax holidays for rural hospitals with a flexibility to select beneficial years and viability gap funding by the government for setting up hospitals in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities." It also recommends bringing more life saving drugs under the lowest slab of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
NATHEALTH, the healthcare federation of India, has recommended sweeping changes in the way the health sector, and investments and expenditure in health are regarded. It asks that healthcare should be declared a national priority sector like agriculture, which will allow banks flexibility to lend to private healthcare institutions on longer tenures and at lower rates. It calls for investment in making high tech solutions part of primary health care infrastructure. Telemedicine showed encouraging reception during the pandemic, this area needs further investment and development.
NATHEALTH also recommends that home-based healthcare come under the umbrella of healthcare services, for the exemption of service tax. It recommends that a national mission for ageing be set up to look holistically at the various issues regarding the greying population.
