Reaction on budget on health

Ludhiana: An increase in the budget on health by 137% it is far less than governments own commitment to give 2.5% share of the GDP to health. If this has to be followed then the budget allocation has to be 3.5 lakh crores but in this budget it is 2.24 lakh crore. A major chunk of this i.e 35000 crore is for COVID-19 vaccination. Dr Arun Mitra, Senior Vice President IDPD, said, “Our demand has been to increase the GDP share to health to three times of the present 1.2% of the GDP.” Moreover it is not clear whether the spending on  health  will be done directly by the government or through financing of private corporate sector which has been the policy of the government. Moreover, no details have been given about long term increase in the public health infrastructure, he added.