Healthcare fraternity has huge expectation from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman who is set to present the Union Budget on February 1. As India spends around 1 percent of GDP on healthcare, Industry believes that it should be increased to support various healthcare infra projects, to enable people accessible and affordable care.
In addition, tax exemption on preventive health check-ups, measures to support investment in Research & Development, provision for liberalized FDI regime for investments in health infrastructure, medical innovation fund, import duty relief for lifesaving equipment, conducive government policies for startups, and focus on primary healthcare infrastructure are some of the expectations of the industry players from the Budget.
Let’s check what Industry players pin their hope upon:
Niira Radia, Chairperson, Nayati Healthcare
India is at the cusp of becoming the Economic power house over the next two decades, which would only be possible with the support of a robust healthcare infrastructure that should be available to masses and not limited to metros only.
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The creation of healthcare facilities in the non-metros need to be incentivised to enable early diagnosis of growing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which correspondingly would be easier and economical to treat thereby enhancing the probability of the disease reversibility besides bringing down the cost of treatment. Tax holidays, soft loans, subsidized land would be some of the areas to be worked upon in this direction. Whilst Ayushman is covering a certain section of the society, the access to tertiary care centres still remains a challenge.
While Ayushman is a welcome step and would evolve over time, it is restricted to the 50 million BPL families and does not cover the remaining population – 80% of which does not have any form of access to any form of healthcare coverage. Insurance penetration is less than 5%, that leaves a approx. Close to 50% of the population remains without any health cover. India needs to move towards a universal healthcare policy available for every citizen.
Keeping pace with the advancements in technology would also be imperative and thus the Government should look at measures to support investment in Research & Development with an aim to bolster new product development and techniques which in turn would generate employment and contribute to the development of the Economy.
Import duty on life saving healthcare equipment’s should be exempted and domestic production of such equipments encouraged and incentivized. Make in India in healthcare should be fast tracked and incentivized.
Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO, GenePath
Molecular diagnostics and genetic testing for preventive screening of cervical, breast and ovarian as well as prostate cancer is known to be significantly more accurate than regular tests and are routinely used in the developed world.
However the higher costs of these tests dissuade doctors in India from prescribing them to the lay man, while the lack of scale inhibits R&D activity to come up with lower cost and South Asian genome relevant tests.
If the tax exemption on preventive health check-ups is raises from the current Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 under section 80D of the Income Tax Act, it will significantly accelerate the adoption of a better level of healthcare in the country.
Source: eHEALTH
