Budget 2025: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table Budget 2025 on February 1 2025. Ahead of Budget 2025, leaders are anticipating that the Finance Minister will prioritise making medicines and other healthcare facilities more accessible and affordable.
The budget allocation for the Union Health Ministry in 2024-25 was Rs 90,658.63 crore, marking a 12.59% increase from the revised estimate of Rs 80,517.62 crore in the 2023-2024 Budget.
With the Union Budget of 2025-2026 fast approaching, all eyes are on a possible reduction in medicine prices. With healthcare inflation of 6.6% in 2024 and the costs of drugs continually elevating due to a rise in the price of raw materials and international raw material costs, the expectation for relief is high, According to Dr Sujit Paul CEO Zota Healthcare Ltd told Financial Express.com.
“An increase in funds for the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), broadened price control of the essential commodities, and a possibly improved subsidy could make a bigger margin upon governmental health and welfare expenses exceeding ₹100,000 crores. Facilitating increased tax on imported APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), reduced rates on domestically produced APIs, or encouraging the research toward biosimilars are other potential initiatives. Reducing costs for manufacturers, allowance to further slash prices and incentivize lower costs for the consumer,” Dr. Paul said.
Even when all of the above measures are implemented, they might possibly provide some relief, while market forces and patent-related considerations are bound to pose daunting challenges, he said.
“The upcoming budget could mitigate issues concerning the research, manufacture, and accessibility of affordable drugs for the Indian public. Until then, stakeholders remain cautiously optimistic, hoping for reforms that will touch the real lives of millions-pending their lives on essential medicines,” he added. Meanwhile, some experts also urge the Finance Minister to reduce hospitalisation cost.
Dr Girdhar Gyani ,Director General, Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) told Financial Express.com that as the Union Budget 2025 approaches, the healthcare sector in the country is hopeful about measures to ease the financial burden of hospitalization for the common man.
“The government’s continued focus on developing health infrastructure, coupled with impactful initiatives such as exemption on cancer medicines and revision in the customs duty rates on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors, has already laid a solid base for improvement in access to affordable healthcare. We hope that the new budget deals with emerging problems in a more meaningful manner, especially out-of-pocket expenses that patients experience when they visit hospitals. Initiatives like incentivizing more penetration of health insurance, removal of GST on essential healthcare inputs, and immunity from taxes for preventive health check-ups would make a big difference in terms of affordability and accessibility. We call upon the government to focus on increased funding for public hospitals, extending financial aid to private health service providers in underdeveloped areas, and investing in digital health solutions so that the cost to operate is reduced,” Dr. Gyani said.
These steps would serve to reduce costs concerning hospitalization while quality care shall also reach all citizens without any form of discrimination, he said.
India’s healthcare service providers are committed to working with the government toward developing a more robust and patient-centric health service that is in tune with the vision of developing a healthier India, he added.
In Budget 2024, the government slashed GST (Goods and Services Tax) from three major cancer drugs: Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib and Durvalumab. Experts highlight that this move should extend to targeted therapy drugs as well as advanced cancer treatment equipment like radiotherapy machines and robotics, most of which have around 37% in customs duties.
