Budget 2018: The healthcare system needs more money and an urgent overhaul

This is the last full budget of the present government and the last opportunity for it to demonstrate its commitment to India's health and nutrition

Slow improvements in basic indicators of maternal and child mortality, double burden of communicable as well as non-communicable diseases, high out-of-pocket expenditure, a failing public sector and heavily commercialised private sector characterise the healthcare crisis in India.

The year 2017 saw a number of incidents in the health sector across the country which highlight each of these issues.

While the deaths of children in a public hospital in Gorakhpur due to alleged disruption of oxygen supply highlighted the systemic failures in public health provision, the cases of excessive billing and negligence in big corporate hospitals (e.g. the case of