By Dr. K. Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Group – Hospitals
Hyderabad, 1st February 2021: While health is a primary prerequisite for any human being, it never received the importance it deserved. The Pandemic has propelled health into the forefront and this is aptly reflected in the budget presented today. The outlay towards prevention, treatment and wellness is welcome and should impact the Health indices positively. Almost the entire budget is targeted at public healthcare infrastructure and facilities and talks about enhancing primary, secondary and tertiary care. This must improve public healthcare infrastructure and services which is a welcome phenomenon.
However, the budget has been silent on certain critical aspects of healthcare which we hope will be addressed in due course. Health Insurance Premiums are increasing and increasing the premium amount for tax exemption would have been a great initiative to increase the number of people covered by Health insurance. This would have helped the huge middle-income population in our country. The private health sector which is a significant provider in India has shared the Responsibility of fighting Covid with the Government. Many private providers particularly single doctor clinics, nursing homes and smaller hospitals are struggling for survival and deserved some relief in the budget.
India was always self-sufficient in terms of the availability of high-quality healthcare services. Patients from over 200 countries travel to India for healthcare and this adds to the wealth of the nation. Facilitating medical travel into India is another opportunity that should have been leveraged.
It is practically impossible to achieve everything in one budget, but it is gratifying to note that a good beginning has been made. I believe this lays the foundation for many other required interventions to improve the health of the nation.
