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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : February 1, 2023 11:25 AM IST
Union Budget 2023: Budget Must Offer Preventive Healthcare To Reduce Pressure On Curative Healthcare, Says Expert
Union Budget 2023 Special Column: India's forthcoming budget must focus on preventive healthcare by offering necessary rebates or exemptions in healthcare expenditure to ensure early detection of genetic diseases like cancer among other lifestyle diseases. Though the Ayushman Bharat scheme launched around four years back has been a positive step towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), it will still take a long time before it covers its coveted objective.
By Niti Aayog's own admission, India is committed to achieving Universal Health care for all by 2030. But then, South Korea, which tops the list for the best universal healthcare systems in the world, does not cover illnesses such as cancer. Hence, the budget must expand the scope of section 80D and allow for more expenditure to be undertaken for preventive healthcare by way of diagnosis.
UNION BUDGET LIVE UPDATES: Catch All The Developments HERE
Currently, under section 80D, an individual in India is allowed to claim a deduction of Rs 25,000 by way of health insurance premium within which Rs 5,000 is allowed for a preventive health check-up. This amount of Rs 5,000 should be increased to at least Rs 25,000 in order to encourage preventive health check-ups per family to reduce future medical expenses. Some reports have well documented the fact that a lower rate of early-stage diagnosis in India has led to a high mortality-to-incidence ratio in diseases like cancer among others compared to developed countries like the US, UK, and China.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a large percentage of diseases can be prevented and controlled with regular assessment and thereby reducing mortality rate more effectively and even doctors seek a diagnostic test in 75 percent of the cases prior to prescribing medication. Regular diagnosis as part of preventive healthcare efforts has been instrumental in reducing expensive treatments later as also the burden on the overall healthcare system.
For instance, a cardiac arrest is the result of the gradual accumulation of cholesterol in blood vessels, which can be identified with a regular health check-up and corrective changes in the diet can be made to reduce fat intake. Similarly, the rising incidence of abdominal cancers in particular, and other such cancers were seen among patients between 25-50 years of age across the world too can be identified with regular diagnosis.
A study released a decade back had estimated the total economic impact of premature death and disability from cancer worldwide at $895 billion, which represented 1.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) then. From an Indian perspective, it is feared that this could substantially impact the productive part of Asia's third-largest economy and hence needs fiscal intervention as treatment options if diagnosed at a later stage are limited and largely ineffective.
Around two years back, the oncology diagnostic market and the preventive screening market for cancer in India were estimated at Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 2,100 crore annually, and going forward by the year 2026, it is estimated to rise to Rs 5,500 crore and 2,800 crores, respectively according to industry reports.
The need for fiscal intervention by way of tax rebates in preventive healthcare expenditures stems from the fact that India spends just over 3 percent of its GDP or as per its allocation in the last budget around Rs 86,200 crore. An increased budget allocation for healthcare should also focus on comprehensive health check-ups similar to one in Japan called Ningen Dock which was developed along with its universal health insurance system.
(The above article is contributed by Dr Sundeep Jain, a GI & HPB Surgeon at Fortis Hospital, Jaipur, and founder of Abdominal Cancer Trust.)
