Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : July 10, 2014 3:04 PM IST
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It's that time of the year again when people who have trouble telling the difference between fiscal and physical suddenly get all excited about a long note that the Finance Minister reads in parliament . Yeah it's budget time, when our dearest government tells us exactly how they're going to spend our hard earned money. With a new government in power who promised to deliver us from the pilfering ways of the former, we've decided to analyse the demands of the healthcare sector. Jokes aside, there's nothing more important than the nation's health and well-being (We'll keep the numbers away so that more people read the post).
Some of the most common demands include:
Increase GDP allocation on healthcare Despite being a democracy, we've a healthcare system which has most resources with the private sector which makes good healthcare services almost unaffordable to the lower income groups. This would also include spending more on public health services and making health insurance available to all.
Give infrastructure status to the healthcare industry Infrastructure status would allow the health sector to receive more help from the government. It would allow people to set up more hospitals and labs, hire more docs and even allow FDI in healthcare.
Make it cheaper to import medical equipment Currently, the taxes are very high and the government should do more for hospitals and others to import top quality medical equipment that's not made in our country.
Make medical visas easier to get India continues to have some top-notch medical institutions that provide quality medical care and this attracts medical tourists from across the world, including developed countries like the US and the UK. It would therefore be great for the economy if the procedure to get medical visas would be made easier as that would boost the economy.
Along with these there are some more specific demands that members of the healthcare industry have which include improving medical insurance coverage, increase tax on tobacco and other harmful products and make it easier to produce and import medical equipment.
Provide better health insurance
Antony Jacob, CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance feels that new government should make health insurance accessible to people. He said: 'With a new, stable government at the centre, we hope for an impetus towards a higher growth trajectory for the health insurance sector and to make health insurance more accessible and affordable for all. The first step that the Government could take immediately would be to increase the tax exemption limit under Section 80D from INR 15,000 to INR 25,000 for individuals and an additional INR 25,000 for parents (INR 30,000 for parents who are senior citizens). This would ensure families have the much needed financial means to keep a check on their current health status.'
He also felt that the tax rebate on preventive check-ups be increased from the current Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 which should be in addition to the rebate one gets for health insurance. This would in turn help in timely diagnosis and reduce overall burden on the people. And finally he added: 'Thirdly, we request that the service tax paid on health insurance is removed for the common man to make it more affordable for all.'
Also, he hoped that The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2008 would be passed this year which would allow the insurance companies to avail more FDI (the current limit is 26%).
Increase the sin tax on tobacco
India remains one of the few countries in the world where cigarettes are comparatively cheaper than what it costs in other countries. Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, a vehement anti-tobacco campaigner told us: ' Tobacco kills every third tobacco user prematurely through cancer, heart disease, lung diseases, etc causing huge burden on our already resource crunched health care system. Tobacco addiction has been identified as a disease that affects every third Indian adult and nearly every fifth Indian kid. Current low tax levels serve as an incentive for tobacco user rather than deterrent.' He went on: 'I see no logic in giving tax subsidy to a product that carries a product warning that it 'kills'. In fact, it is the cheapest 'poison' currently available in the market.'
With current tax pattern, consumer and the nation are losers where as handful of business families ( bidi and chewing tobacco industry owners) are making vulgar profit by selling this 'weapon of mass destruction' Various studies have shown that increasing taxes just by 10% can reduce consumption by 5%. He also wants all subsidies and SOPS given to bidi industry to withdrawn, higher taxes levies on raw unprocessed tobacco and removal of subsidy given on small length cigarettes.
Encourage and improve importing facilities of medical equipment
Another common red-tape issue is the importing or manufacturing of medical equipment in India. These need to be sorted if the nation wishes to provide the best healthcare facilities. Mr Sanjeev Vashishtha, CEO, SRL Diagnostics feels this can be done by decreasing custom duties on reagents from 28% to nil. He says: 'For high-end specialized tests custom duties on the reagents to be brought down from 28% to NIL. It is also important to allow labs, hospitals & contract research organisations (CROs) to directly import diagnostic kits under Form 11 for own use.'
He also added the necessity to encourage the manufacturing of equipments and reagents within India. He also feels that diagnostics should be part of health insurance: 'Include diagnostics even without being hospitalized as part of health insurance reimbursements. Moreover, there should be income tax exemptions for diagnostics (Rs 5000) & chronic illness (Rs 25000) over and above the existing provisions.'
He added that implementing IT in diagnostics and hospitals by providing tax benefits would aid citizens in the long run. So that's for now ladies and gentlemen. We guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see.
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