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UNION BUDGET 2022-Healthcare’s Perspective

February 5, 2022

Introduction:

The time everyone has been eagerly waiting for was finally here on February 1st,2022. Our Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, presented the Union Budget for 2022–23 during a press conference on February 1st. This budget was awaited, particularly by health care industry experts, because healthcare was the most critical area that required attention following the COVID-19 outbreak and the recent cases fueled by the omicron variant. So, did the government prioritize healthcare in this year’s union budget, as it did last year? To answer this confidently from the standpoint of healthcare, let’s first delve into the specifics of this budget.

Healthcare in the Union Budget:

The economy’s overall sharp rebound and recovery reflect our country’s strong resilience. This year economic growth in India is expected, at 9.2%, the highest among all large economies, said Nirmala Sitharaman at the start of her speech.

Second, the government is confident that, with Sabka Prayas, the journey of rapid growth in healthcare infrastructure and vaccination campaigns amid this omicron wave will continue this year as well. They stated due to the improvement of health infrastructure over the last two years, India can face challenges. But can the entire healthcare system withstand the challenges that this microwave has in store following the fallout during the second wave in 2021?

The union budget has plans to focus on digital healthcare, which can be a significant step toward improving the health system. On September 27, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which the finance minister said will implement this year. According to Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech in Parliament, India will digitize the country’s health care delivery system by creating registries of health providers and facilities; providing unique health identities to all residents; developing a consent framework; and ensuring universal access to health care.

The budget allocated for healthcare in 2022/23 is Rs 86,200.65 crore, which is 16.59% more than the previous year’s estimates of Rs 73,931 crore, with an expectation for some increases in the various areas of health care. On the other hand, budget estimates for the National Health Mission in 2022–23, stand at Rs 37,000.23 crore, compared to Rs 34,447.14 crore in revised estimates for 2021–22. Rs 10,000 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna, compared to Rs 74,00 crore in the previous year’s revised estimates.

According to experts, “it appeared to be a blank sheet; 16.5% is hardly an increase with inflation nearing 10%.” Even the national health mission saw a scanty 7% increase, indicating that “no lessons have been learned from the pandemic situation,” according to Sujatha Rao, former Union health secretary.

All these objectives need to align to meet Amrit Kaal’s goal, the two words that appeared in this year’s budget. Amrit Kaal is none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 25-year vision for India@100, which he mentioned in his Independence Day address. This vision will meet by achieving various other objectives, one of which is promoting digital health.

The government will use a transformative approach to economic growth and sustainable development with the PM GATISHAKTI NATIONAL MASTER PLAN. As a result, the utilization of technology and faster implementation are beneficial for infrastructure development.

Drone Shakti will be aided by promoting, beneficial for healthcare startups.

An open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem is launching as part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. It will include digital registries of health providers and facilities, unique health identities, a consent framework, and universal access to health care.

The National Telemental Health Programme is the next major issue on which the budget focused in the case of healthcare, in light of the mental health problems that accelerated during the pandemic. This program will include 23 telemental health centers with NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences) serving as the nodal center and the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technical support.

Apart from this, the Finance Minister promised in this year’s union budget for 75,000 rural health centers, checkup clinics, critical care hospitals in 602 districts, and a more nutrition-focused health plan. The poor and their needs will be the primary focus.

Blockchain Technology and Healthcare:

Point 111 of the union budget specifies- the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC). They will provide a significant boost to the digital economy. As a result, digital currency will result in a more efficient and cost-effective currency management system. In turn, the Reserve Bank of India will issue technologies such as -Blockchain technology and other technologies that will eventually aid to introduce the Digital Rupee beginning in 2022-23. But how does this technology benefit the healthcare industry?

Blockchain, as we know, is a distributed system that generates and stores data records. In simple terms, blockchain is a system for recording information securely in ways that changing, hacking, or cheating the system is difficult or impossible. So, on the blockchain, it is a digital ledger of transactions that is copied and distributed across the entire network of computer systems.

As a result, blockchain has the potential to transform healthcare. The medical industry has suffered immensely for its inability to share securely, and access sensitive patient data. This technology will enable finely customizable openness while adhering to the highest security standards to ensure true interoperability. As a result, health information systems will collaborate within and across organizational boundaries to advance the effective delivery of healthcare to individuals and communities.

Blockchains in healthcare are available in 5 primary areas:

Managing electronic medical record(EMR) data

Protection of healthcare data
Personal health record data management
Point-of-care genomics management
Electronic health records data management

Finally, if approved, this technology will create a centralized system for storing constantly updated health records for secure and rapid retrieval by authorized users, resulting in faster, cheaper, and better patient care.

Public-Private Partnership and Healthcare:

One of the topics discussed in the union budget for 2022 is public-private partnerships.

Increased PPP can aid in the improvement of healthcare infrastructure. “The government’s collaboration with the private sector, while refocusing on life science, healthcare, and diagnostics, will play a critical role in deciding the future of diagnostics in the country,” said Dr. Gauri Agarwal, Founder & Director, Genestrings Diagnostic and Seeds of Innocence.

As a result, the government believes that PPP should help develop healthcare services in rural areas.

Conclusion:

To summarise, this year’s union budget included some ideas that, if properly implemented, can prove to be beneficial in the development of healthcare, such as the digitalization of healthcare, the budget set aside for healthcare, the opening of health clinics, and the mental health program.

Public-private partnerships are required to meet many of these expectations. Fostering innovation in the healthcare sector will provide public policymakers with a clear path to making India one of the world’s wealthiest nations.

However, this year’s union budget for healthcare received a mixed reaction. Some are intrigued as the pandemic healthcare will be developed and prioritized, including pointers raised above. However, the budget dashed the hopes of many who expected a significant increase in funding for the health sector. The manufacturing industry appeared to be underwhelmed by the Union Budget 2022-23. Rajiv Nath, CMD of Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices, stated that he expects the government to take steps to increase domestic manufacturing of medical devices, an industry that is 80-85% on imports. “Unfortunately, there are no strategic stated measures to boost domestic manufacturing in the Budget speech.” “When imports were disrupted during the Covid-19 crisis, the government relied on domestic manufacturers,” he added.

As a result, I’d like to conclude that following the 2nd covid wave, as well as the current omicron outbreak, people expected healthcare and its challenges to be prioritized in the budget. The schemes presented in the budget 2022, if properly implemented, will undoubtedly change the face of healthcare and the medical industry, but people are concerned that what if the path chosen by the government does not lead to the results we want for healthcare in today’s covid world, how will we protect ourselves from yet another covid wave?

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