Union Budget 2023: What’s in Store for The Health Sector?

Posted on: Feb 15, 2023 | | Written by:

Union Budget 2023: What’s in Store for The Health Sector?

Published on February 15, 2023. EST READ TIME: 4 minutes

The announcement of the Union Budget is one of the most awaited days for people across different income groups. We all hope that new plans and programmes will help us be more financially secure. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget2023 recently and made several announcements on the health sector. Let’s learn about them and how they made a difference as compared to the Union Budget 2022.

Key Highlights of Union Budget 2023 of Health Sector

• A whopping INR 88,956 crore was allocated to health expenditure in the Union Budget. This means the hike is INR 2,350 crores (2.71 percent) from INR 86,606 crores in FY23. Out of the total allocation, INR 86,175 crore will go to the Department of Health and Family Welfare, and the rest (INR 2,980 crore) to the Department of Health Research. Even the total budget allocation for the Ministry of AYUSH saw an increase of 20 per cent, amounting to INR 3,647.50 crore. The budget for the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana is INR 3,365 crores now. The Union Budget has allocated autonomous bodies INR 17,322.55 crores in 2023-24. This is a raise from INR 10,348.17 crores in 2022-23. For AIIMS, New Delhi, however, the allocation has come down. Earlier, it was INR 4,400.24 crore. Now, it’sINR 4,134.67 crore.

• It was announced that 157 new nursing colleges would be established. These colleges will be in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges that have been established since 2014.

• The finance minister said that a mission would be launched to eliminate sickle cell anaemia. The deadline for that has been set as 2047. The mission will spread awareness about the ailment and also take measures to screen more than 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years. The focus will be more on those in the tribal areas, and collaboration from state governments will be sought to implement the campaign successfully.

• The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) has been bifurcated into PMSSY itself and for the establishment of 22 new AIIMS. An amount of INR 6,835 crores has been allocated for that in the Union Budget 2023.

• The allocation for the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in the Union Budgethas gone up from INR 2,116.73 crores to INR 2,359.58 crores. Select ICMR laboratories will now be made available for research by faculty members of public and private medical colleges as well as private sector research and development teams. This move aims to encourage collaborative research and innovation.

• Many experts believed that the Union Budget fell short when it came to individual health insurance, given the relatively low health insurance penetration in the country.

• Many of us spend a significant percentage of our income on healthcare. The need of the hour was to increase the rebate given on health insurance plan premiums under Section 80D. The cost of quality healthcare facilities is only rising, and the revised tax rebate would have encouraged taxpayers to invest more in health insurance and also a good critical illness plan. Moreover, nothing was heard of reducing health insurance premium prices which could ultimately lead to better healthcare accessibility. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate of 18% that impacts health insurance premiums wasn’t reduced as well.

Conclusion

The Union Budget 2023 met many expectations and, as most budgets do, left many of us disappointed. The necessities like life insurance and health insurance should have been given more importance during planning. While encouraging taxpayers to move towards the new tax regime could be seen as a sign of better spending capacity, more focus on tax deductions under Sections 80C and 80D of the Income Tax Act would have encouraged people to buy health insurance plans. However, it is important to secure yourself with individual medical insurance or a family floater plan based on your family size to stay prepared for any medical emergencies. If there’s any critical illness in the family, you can opt for a critical illness plan because treatment of critical illnesses can be quite expensive.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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