Union Budget 2024: Budget fails to enthuse the healthcare sector

One healthcare announcement in the budget is applicable only to Bihar. Representation Pic

There were only three healthcare-related announcements in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech, with one applicable only to Bihar. This led healthcare professionals to deem the budget as maintaining the 'status quo' with very little to look forward to.

A total of Rs 90,958.63 crore has been allotted for the health sector, with R87,656.90 crore allocated to the department of health and family welfare and R3,301.73 crore to the department of health research. The increase is a little over 12 per cent from the revised estimates of the previous year, however, it is still not 2.5 per cent of the GDP as it had promised in its National Health Policy, 2017.

"New airports, medical colleges, and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed.... To provide relief to cancer patients, I propose to fully exempt three more medicines from customs duties. I also propose changes in the BCD (basic custom duty) on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors for use in medical x-ray machines under the Phased Manufacturing Programme, so as to synchronise them with domestic capacity addition," Sitharaman said in her speech.

There were no new announcements apart from these, nor was there a mention of the Centre's flagship insurance schemes. Dr Mini Bodhanwala, CEO of Wadia Hospital, said, "There is not much excitement for healthcare. The budget should have been a more sustainable one. There should have been a mention of more affordable rates. I wasn't expecting a boost to private healthcare, but I was looking forward to a budget that reflects healthcare as a fundamental right." She added, "We expected some exemptions for hospitals from GST."

Kokilaben Hospital's CEO, Dr Santosh Shetty, said, "There is nothing much for healthcare. Apart from a couple of announcements, it is status quo, but we still need to look at the fine print. We [hospitals] don't receive benefits on GST, which the sector has been asking for a while now. Nor has there been a tax exemption on health insurance; the idea is to incentivise people to take it up. The announcement regarding cancer drugs is welcome; at least one section of patients will definitely benefit."

Cancer drugs

The cancer drugs to be exempted from customs duty, the 10 per cent duty earlier imposed, are Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib, and Durvalumab. Dr Pramesh Pai, head and neck oncologist with Ahilyabai Holkar Hospital, said, "These are target drugs focusing only on the tumor, which reduces the side effects, but the cost was very high as they are manufactured abroad. The drugs proposed to reduce focus on breast cancer, lung cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers."

Dr Jyoti Bajpai, medical oncologist with Tata Hospital, said, "The cost of the drugs which have received an exemption can run into lakhs. For instance, 100 mg Trastuzumab Deruxtecan costs R1,87,000, and for each cycle of therapy, 3 vials are used. At Tata Hospital, medicines are already made available at subsidized rates, so it will further reduce the burden for patients."

Dr Vijay Haribhakti, consultant surgical oncologist at H N Reliance Foundation Hospital, said the impact of these announcements will only be known once the medications are in the market at revised rates. "It is only a marginal reduction in price, but one can still say these medications now become relatively affordable, although not everyone will be able to afford it even now."