New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, presented the Union Budget 2024-25, which included a proposal to exempt three important cancer medications from basic customs duty. Additionally, she suggested that customs duty be waived for components of digital detectors and X-ray tubes.
Sitharaman announced various programs in the healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices sectors during the 2024 Interim Budget. The interim Budget for 2024-2025 has allocated Rs 90,658.63 crore to the Union Health Ministry. The Ministry has experienced a 12.59 percent increase in the Budget (revised estimates) for 2023-2024, which amounts to 80,517.62 crore. The 75th Round of the National Sample Survey demonstrated that the private and public sectors differ significantly in terms of out-of-pocket treatment costs. In 2017-18, the average medical cost of hospitalization was Rs 4,452 in government hospitals and Rs 31,845 in private hospitals.
The average out-of-pocket cost for non-childbirth hospitalizations in rural areas was Rs 4,290 in government hospitals and Rs 27347 in private hospitals. In urban areas, these figures are higher, with an average cost of Rs 4,837 in government hospitals and Rs 38,822 in private hospitals. Borrowings are also utilized by individuals to finance health expenditures. The survey indicates that 13.4% of the hospitalization cases in rural areas and 8.5% in urban areas were financed by individuals through borrowings.
