Budget 2019 : Healthcare in India

July 5, 2019 September 18, 2020

The Union Budget 2019 has allocated Rs 62,559 crore for healthcare spending in the financial year 2018-2019. This is an increase of 19% over the last year.

Salient Features of the allocation-

  • The Ayushman Bharat which is a flagship scheme of the Union government has an allocation of Rs 6,400 crores. It that aims to provide an annual health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10.74 crore vulnerable families with approximately 50 crore beneficiaries.
  • A total of Rs 249.96 crore has been allocated to set up Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres under the National Urban Health Mission. They will provide comprehensive primary care.
  • Another Rs 1,349.97 crore has been earmarked for setting up health and wellness centers under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM).
  • NHRM aims to transform nearly 1.5 lakh sub-centers and primary health centers into health and wellness centers by 2022.
  • The NHRM centers will focus on modern menaces like blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and old age-related illness
  • The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) has seen a decline in its allocation to Rs 156 crore, a decline of Rs 1,844 crore from the last fiscal.
  • National AIDS and STD Control Programme has seen its allocation increase from Rs 2100 crores to Rs 2500 crores.
  • The budgetary allocation for the AIIMS has been increased to Rs 3,599.65 crore from Rs 3,018 crore in the 2018-2019 fiscal.
  • The National Mental Health Programme saw a decline from Rs 50 crore to Rs 40 crore while the budgetary allocation for the National Programme for prevention and control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Stroke was reduced to Rs 175 crore from Rs 295 crore.
  • The total budgetary allocation for the tertiary care programs saw a Rs 200 crore dip, from Rs 750 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 550 crore in this fiscal.
  • The Central government has allocated Rs 2,000 crore to convert district hospitals into new medical colleges and another Rs 1,361 crore to strengthen government medical colleges (undergraduate) and central government health institutions.
  • Rs 20 crore has been allocated for setting up State Institutions of Paramedical Sciences in the states.

 

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