Health experts hope for higher allocation

There are many expectations the healthcare sector has from the Union Budget 2015, but the foremost one is an increase in the allocation.

“At present, the health budget is less than one per cent of the GDP. I hope it will be somewhere near 2 per cent this year,” said Prathap C. Reddy, founder and chairman, Apollo Group of Hospitals.

Universal health insurance coverage for all is another pressing need and this should be focused on this year, said V. Thiyagarajan, managing director, India Home Healthcare. Suneeta Reddy, managing director at Apollo, said this could be made mandatory for all citizens in a phased manner, initially covering the organised sector.

Another important expectation, Ms. Reddy said in a statement, was on preventive healthcare. “Given the rising incidence of lifestyle diseases, it is imperative that employers get a separate annual deduction of up to Rs. 7,500 per employee once every two years, towards expenses incurred for sponsoring their health checks,” she said.

Another recommendation would be to push service tax levied on cosmetic surgeries to the negative list to reduce hardships faced by trauma patients undergoing reconstruction surgery, she said.

On medical devices, the sector is hoping for the promotion of Indian manufacturing to reduce import dependency. “Fiscal incentives for local innovations and creating a medical devices unit to promote local manufacturing would be very helpful,” said G.S.K. Velu, founder, Trivitron Group of Companies, in a statement.