Government must take measures to achieve the goal of universal healthcare

Coming closely after the demonetization drive that has overwhelmed the citizens and the economy for the past two months, the budget 2017 is being awaited with bated breath. Expectations are high that the government would reward the common man with incentives and tax concessions to make up for the hardships suffered by them. In a nutshell, most analysts are expecting a ‘feel good’ budget to have a balm-like effect on the country.

However, when it comes to healthcare, we need much more than feel-good announcements. Concrete well thought out long term measures are the need of the time to boost and further the government’s agenda of ensuring universal healthcare. In this context it would be good to briefly revisit the noticeable aspects of last year’s budget.  In the budget 2016, the government tried to improve thrust on two major A’s in healthcare - affordability and accessibility - with special focus on the elderly and poor families. The announcement to open 3,500 generic medical stores and the National Dialysis Program were important moves that laid out the government’s vision for increasing the reach of public healthcare. Another dimension to the same goal was the announcement of a basic insurance cover.