Budget 2021-22 Expectations for Health: In Budget 2020, the Central government should appear to make healthcare services accessible for all citizens of the nation by working with new-age healthcare market and technologies to attain out the final mile. (Representative image by IE)
Union Budget 2021-22 Expectations for Health: Healthcare method in India has witnessed unprecedented challenges in 2020 due to the onslaught of the Covid pandemic. The Healthcare landscape and ecosystem in India have undergone a paradigm shift in the final nine months and the upcoming Union Budget 2021 has the prospective to develop into a game-changer for the sector. The Narendra Modi government has been focusing on the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana(AB PM-JAY) and National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). In Budget 2020, the Central government should appear to make healthcare services accessible for all citizens of the nation by working with new-age healthcare market and technologies to attain out the final mile.
“The upcoming Budget 2021 has the potential of being a game-changer for the Indian Healthcare Sector. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions as a viable option to conventional care delivery systems. Be it efficient management of COVID-19 and vaccination or achieving the goal of Universal Health Coverage, Digital Health would be great enablers with the right policy push. The health sector is expecting more specific allotments in this year’s budget to mitigate Covid and the growth of the telemedicine sector,” Gaurav Gupta, Co-founder Navia Life Care, mentioned.
“With the launch of NDHM earlier this year, we expect a surge in the Budget 2021 allocation, especially for setting up digital health infrastructure for India, a shared digital infrastructure leveraging both public and private enterprises is the need of the hour, and a policy push to it under the Mission is strongly recommended. Such an infrastructure would help us to provide innovative solutions. Digital Health in the country is mainly being driven by health-tech companies and startups. A right policy push would pave the way for a new and robust digital health ecosystem,” Gupta mentioned.
“The Budget 2020-21 needs to focus on the expansion of digital healthcare that has great potential to make healthcare more affordable and accessible by using technology to reach out the last mile,” the Co-founder of Navia Life Care mentioned.
“Medical Affairs and Clinical Evidence Healthcare landscape and ecosystem in India have undergone a paradigm shift in the last 9 months. Education and awareness in healthcare will continue to be the cornerstone of all management strategies. Digital healthcare, telemedicine, and Nutraceuticals will be important drivers for health and wellness. Budgetary allocation will have to be made for research and innovation in these areas. Generating epidemiological and other health economic data will have to be funded for developing better management and resource utilization and allocation strategies. The use of technology for healthcare management will have to have a special status for the growth of the industry. The growth of nutraceutical sector will also play an important role for managing chronic and diseases as well as preventive health. The sector is in its infancy now and growing rapidly. Special funding for R&D in nutraceutical will go along way in paving the way for the contribution of this sector in healthcare of India. Overall, fund allocation to new-age healthcare industry like digitech and nutraceuticals will have to have a long term plan,” Dr. Anish Desai, MD, FCP, PGDHEP Director of IntelliMed Healthcare Solutions mentioned.