Health Ministry budget allocation increased 12% to Rs 90,658 crore

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been allocated Rs 90,658.63 crore in the Interim Budget for FY25, marking a rise of 12.5 percent as compared to the allocation of revised Budget Estimates of Rs 80,518 crore in the 2023-24 budget.

In the upcoming financial year, the department of health and family welfare has been allocated Rs 87,656.90 crore, while the department of health research has been allocated Rs 3,001.73 crore.

“The emphasis on leveraging existing hospital infrastructure for establishing new medical colleges is a strategic move that aligns with the need for a robust healthcare workforce,” said Anil Matai, Director General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), on the budget.

Allocation for Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) increased to Rs 7,500 crore from Rs 6,800 crore revised BE for 2023-24. The FM had said that healthcare cover under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme will be extended to Accredited Social Health Activist(ASHA) workers, anganwadi workers and helpers. Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) provides cashless and paper less benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum per family on floater basis in the empanelled hospitals across India. At present AB-PMJAY target to cover 12 crore families (covering more than 50 crore population in India).

“The announcement of extending health coverage under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to all ASHA and Anganwadi have been better if more families were covered under the scheme to achieve universal health coverage,” said Gautam Khanna, CEO P.D. Hinduja Hospital and President Association of Hospitals, Mumbai.

The PMABHIM scheme, under which the government aims to fill critical gaps in health infrastructure, surveillance, and health research, has been allocated Rs 4,107.68 crore in the upcoming financial year; the revised Budget estimate for the scheme this year was Rs 2,100 crore. The measures under the PM ABHIM focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels, primary, secondary and tertiary, to prepare health systems in responding effectively to the current and future pandemics/disasters.

A key scheme to provide healthcare services through public sector hospitals in India, the National Health Mission received Rs 38,183 crore higher than the revised Budget of Rs 33,886 crore in FY24 for the scheme. Under this, the 2024 Interim Budget, has also proposed Rs 250 crore for the National Digital Health Mission, which stood at Rs 200 crore in the budget estimates for 2023-24.

The Global Fund Grant under Covid-19 Response Mechanism 2021(EAP), has been allocated Rs 462 crore up from the Rs 15 crore allocation for revised estimates 2023-34. Global fund is providing 100 percent grant for mobile PSA units, Advance Life Support Ambulances. Pressure Swing Adsorption plants, training causal booster pumps, training courses booster pump for cylinder refilling procurement of oxygen cylinder and national level training workshop on Oxygen management and administrative capacity building.

The AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) Ministry has been allocated Rs 3712.49 crore for FY 25 which is 23 percent higher than the Rs 3000 crore revised budget estimates for FY 24. Moneycontrol