Union Budget 2022 | Health sector sees 45% drop in proposed expenses, allocation up 0.2%

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The government’s proposed expenditure on medical and public health in the coming fiscal is going to see a drastic drop of more than 45 percent from the revised Budget estimate for 2021-22, the fine print of the Budget document shows.

The Centre proposes to spend Rs 41,011 crore towards medical and public health in 2022-23, while this expense was Rs 74,820 in the current financial year.

The sharp reduction in the head is due to the lower requirement for COVID vaccination, the document explains.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also pledged Rs 5,000 crore as support to states for COVID vaccination this year, which is Rs 33,000 crore lesser than the 2021-22 allocation. The government, as per the revised Budget estimate, had committed Rs 39,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccination this fiscal.

For the Union health ministry, the total Budget for 2022-23 stands at Rs 86,200 crore, which is just 0.2 percent higher than the revised Budget for 2021-22.

Health economist Rijo M John explained that Rs 41,011 crore dedicated towards public and medical health is part of Rs 86,200 crore that also includes other heads like establishment expenditures, central health schemes and central health institutions.

Many public health experts expressed disappointment over reduced focus on the health sector in the Budget tabled today, saying that there is no major announcement despite the devastating COVID-19 wave last year which exposed the country’s near-dysfunctional health system.

Epidemiologist and health system expert Chandrakant Lahariya, for instance, called the allocation for health this year “below expectation” and rued that more thrust was required to upgrade health infrastructure and quality healthcare services.

He also pointed out that the health budget for 2022-23 may be less than 2.1 percent of the GDP, which was the case in 2021-22, when adjusted against growth and inflation.