Union Budget 2016: 3,000 generic medicine stores to open; Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

In last 10 years the growth on total healthcare in India has been decreased from 4.30 percent to 4.05 percent with a high rate of growth in low-middle income population. In 2012 the total public spending on health care in India was around Rs 2500.

New Delhi, February 29 (IANS): The government will set up 3,000 new generic medicine stores across the country to tackle the shortage of drugs in rural areas, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

“For the better availability of generic medicines in the country, especially in the rural areas, the government has decided to open 3,000 new generic medicines stores,” said Jaitley while presenting the budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha. The medicine centres will be opened under the Prime Minister’s Jan Aushadhi Yojana.

Stating that the serious illness of family member(s) causes severe stress on the financial condition of poor and economically weak families, Jaitley said: “Government will launch a new health protection scheme which will provide health cover up to rupees one lakh per family.”

“For senior citizens of the age 60 years and above belonging to this category, an additional top-up package up to Rs.30,000 will be provided,” said Jaitley.

He also announced the launch of the National Dialysis Services Programme, under which funds will be made available through Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode under the National Health Mission, to provide dialysis services in all district hospitals.

To reduce the cost, the finance minister proposed to exempt certain parts of dialysis equipment from basic customs duty and excise.

About 2.2 lakh new patients of End Stage Renal Disease get added in India every year, resulting in additional demand for 3.4 crore dialysis sessions. With approximately 4,950 dialysis centres in India, largely in the private sector and concentrated in the major towns, the demand is only half met.

“Every dialysis session costs about Rs.2,000 – an annual expenditure of more than Rs.3 lakh. Besides, most families have to undertake frequent trips, often over long distances, to access dialysis services, incurring heavy travel costs and loss of wages,” said Jaitley.

The Indian Health care industry has seen a rapid growth of 17 percent and by 2020 the industry is expected to become a US $280 billion industry. In India around one million die every year due to lack in healthcare facilities and more than 700 million people across the nation have no access for treatment under specialist.

The rural and urban India is widely divided in the health care system also with 70 percent of country’s population still lives in rural areas who have almost a negligible access to hospitals and clinics in their villages. A report suggest that more than 80 percent of specialists live in urban India. Health care development and infrastructure and its easy accessibility can help India fight against diseases.

In last 10 years the growth on total healthcare in India has been decreased from 4.30 percent to 4.05 percent with a high rate of growth in low-middle income population. In 2012 the total public spending on health care in India was around Rs 2500. Read Also: (Budget 2016: Arun Jaitley gives final touch to Budget, meet the team that designed it)

The main problem that lies in the health care lies with the government hospitals and their infrastructure. Besides healthcare infrastructure the second biggest hurdle of India’s healthcare industry is its large number of medically uninsured population who live across the rural pocket of the country.

The Government now needs to work hard on the health care sector which is in dire need of funds to improve their infrastructure and skills set to increase to increase positive results. Also availability of cheap medicine will help the pharma industry to launch new drugs and explore the market while expanding the existing ones.