{"id":165941,"date":"2022-02-02T20:26:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T14:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=165941"},"modified":"2022-02-02T20:26:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T14:56:04","slug":"budgets-missed-healthcare-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/budgets-missed-healthcare-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget\u2019s missed healthcare opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News: <\/strong>Given the Covid pandemic it was expected that health would be the focus of the budget. But government\u2019s focus is more on capital expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Must read: Union Budget 2022-23: Highlights, tax proposals, concerns \u2013 Explained, pointwise\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Why government focus on health is important?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

An estimated 70,000 crore have been spent on out-of-pocket expenditure by people. This pushed millions below the poverty line. Children have lost two years of schooling. Covid resulted in a 30% shortfall in covering immunisation and reproductive and child health programmes.<\/p>\n

Though The budget allocation on health has increased to 83,000 crores, it is only an increase of 16.4% over the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Steps taken by the Government of India to meet the challenges of Healthcare in India.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Why less allocation is a challenge for the health sector?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

First,<\/strong> because of the COVID-19 pandemic fiscal space for health is small. And the key priorities of defence, education and subsidies also cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> While the Centre bears only 8% of health expenditure, states spend twice that amount. There is a huge divergence in health spending across states, with states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar becoming major determinants in health outcomes.<\/p>\n

Third,<\/strong> improvement in health outcomes needs long-term planning, which is lacking in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Why India\u2019s Health data needs a booster jab<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Why investment in health sectors is important?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Investment in maternal and child health and nutrition will pay dividends with a more capable workforce. Investments in health provide financial risk protection to the population. This can save families from going into poverty.<\/p>\n

The window of long-term investment is small. The 26 million children born in India every year are part of human capital that should be converted into an active and healthy workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Health Infrastructure: PM bats for health infra at district level<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What should be done going forward?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There should be a sustained 20-year plan to reach critical milestones<\/strong> like infant mortality, nutrition, child immunisation, reductions in infectious diseases etc.<\/p>\n

India can learn from the Chinese plan<\/strong> and long-term investment which pulled millions out of poverty by investing in health.<\/p>\n

The national health Mission thus becomes key for attaining long-term health goals in India.<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0<\/strong>This post is based on the following articles:<\/p>\n

“Budget 2022: Can the finance minister solve India’s health challenges?”\u00a0<\/strong>published in the\u00a0Business Standard <\/strong>on\u00a02nd February 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Budget\u2019s<\/strong> missed healthcare opportunity<\/strong>” <\/strong>published in the\u00a0Indian Express <\/strong>on\u00a02nd February 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Given the Covid pandemic it was expected that health would be the focus of the budget. But government\u2019s focus is more on capital expenditure. Must read: Union Budget 2022-23: Highlights, tax proposals, concerns \u2013 Explained, pointwise\u00a0 Why government focus on health is important? An estimated 70,000 crore have been spent on out-of-pocket expenditure by… Continue reading Budget\u2019s missed healthcare opportunity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,212,10496],"class_list":["post-165941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704944756},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}