Budget has ignored health: Docs' body IMA

New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association (IMA), an apex body of doctors having a membership of 3.5 lakh doctors in the country, has called the Union budget "a huge disappointment". "Health was the only subject which the Union Finance Minister has preferred to downplay," IMA's national president Santanu Sen said in a statement on Saturday, a day after the budget.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has received a small boost in its share — from the budget estimate of Rs 52,800 crore last year, the estimate stands at Rs 62,659 crore this time. The rise in the allocation (Rs 9,859 crore) is not adequate as it merely accounts for inflation, the IMA said.

The government's flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, has received the lion's share of this hike. Last year, after the scheme was announced, its share in the budget stood at Rs 2,400 crore, which has been hiked to Rs 6,400 crore this year — an increase of 4,000 crore.

However, the IMA leadership has claimed a "lack of clarity" on the enhancement of investment in the scheme. The doctors' body has also criticised the government for not extending the insurance cover under Ayushman Bharat to primary care.

"If that was done, "thousands of clinics and small hospitals situated in rural and semi-urban areas" would have participated and benefitted, too. This move would have made both the insurance scheme and the small hospitals viable and sustainable," the IMA pointed out.