Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Februrary 1 announced a Rs 61,398 crore budgetary allocation for the health sector for the 2019-2020 fiscal, with Rs 6,400 crore earmarked for the centre's ambitious AB-PMJAY health insurance scheme.

The health outlay for the upcoming financial year is the highest in the last two fiscals and saw a 16 per cent increase over the 2018-2019 allocation which was Rs 52,800 crore. The Union Budget for 2019-20 saw an allocation of Rs 6,400 crore for the Centre's Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 23. The revised estimates show that Rs 2,400 crore were allocated for 2018-19.

The scheme aims at providing a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and is aimed at benefitting more than 10 crore poor families across the country. Rs 250 crore has been allocated for setting up Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres under the National Urban Health Mission to provide comprehensive and quality primary care close to the community. Rs 1,350.01 crore has been earmarked for setting up health and wellness centres under the National Rural Health Mission.

Under the programme, nearly 1.5 lakh sub-centres and primary health centres will be transformed as health and wellness centres by 2022. These centre will be equipped to providing treatment for diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and old age-related illness.

The allocation for the National Health Mission (NHM) for 2019-20 was raised to Rs 31,745 crore from the last budget's allocation of Rs 30,129.61 crore. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY), which features under the NHM, saw an allocation of Rs 156 crore, a decline of Rs 1,844 crore.

The government allocated Rs 2,500 crore to its National AIDS and STD Control Programme an increase of Rs 400 crore from last budget's allocation of Rs 2,100 crore. The budgetary allocation for the AIIMS has been increased to Rs 3,599.65 crore from Rs 3,018 crore in the 2018-2019 fiscal.

"Provision for ASHA Benefit package has been increased by 92.44 per cent over previous year. Additional Rs 692.40 crore has been allocated in BE 2019-20 against BE 2018-19 for Health System Strengthening under NRHM for improvement of health infrastructural facilities and to upscale free drugs and diagnostics," a health ministry document stated.

Allocation for the National Mental Health Programme saw a decline from Rs 50 crore to Rs 40 crore while the budgetary outlay for the National Programme for prevention and control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardio-vascular Disease and Stroke was reduced to Rs 175 crore from Rs 295 crore.

The total budgetary allocation for the tertiary care programmes saw a dip of Rs 200 crore, from Rs 750 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 550 crore for the upcoming fiscal. The budgetary allocation for 2019-20 of North Eastern Institutes increased by 77.12 per cent over previous year.

Rs 148.50 crore has been allocated for providing financial assistance to cancer patients living below poverty line, which is 288 per cent more than what was allocated in 2018-19. An additional Rs 218.40 crore has been allocated in budget estimates (BE) 2019-20 against BE 2018-19 for strengthening of food testing system in the country including provision of Mobile Food Testing Labs (SoFTel).

The government, in the interim Budget, has allocated Rs 64 crore for upgrading and strengthening nursing services, Rs 5 crore for upgrading pharmacy schools and colleges, Rs 800 crore for upgrading district hospitals and state government medical colleges (post-graduate seats).

It allocated Rs 1,361 crore for strengthening government medical colleges (undergraduate seats) and central government health institutions, Rs 2,000 crore for establishing new medical colleges and Rs 20 crore for setting up State Institutions of Paramedical Sciences in the states and for setting up colleges of para-medical education. The allocation for the Department of Health Research for 2018-19 was raised to Rs 1,900.00 crore from the last budget's allocation of Rs 1,800.00 crore, an increase of Rs 100 crore.