Apart from slashing the allocation for public health by nearly ₹800 crore in the Budget, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal has sent a clear message that, henceforth, the government might be looking to alternative financing mechanisms or public donations to raise funds for government health institutions.
Perhaps, one should read this together with the fact that public hospitals are currently reeling under an acute shortage of funds and that there is not even a partial allocation in the Budget for paying off the arrears of ₹1,354 crore that the government has to pay the hospitals for providing free treatment under various schemes.
Medical and public health sector has been allocated ₹2,052.23 crore this year, which is much lower than the allocation of ₹2,828.33 crore in 2023-24. The allocation for medical education has also taken a dip, from ₹463.75 crore in 2023-24 to ₹401.24 crore this year
Though the health sector allocation has dipped sharply, Mr. Balagopal spoke about transforming Kerala into a medical hub through improved healthcare facilities, a repetition of his speech last year.
Till date, the government has always played the populist card and has consistently shot down revenue generation proposals, such as a nominal fee for OP tickets and superspecialty consultations from those who can afford it. Mr. Balagopal now proposes that a healthcare fund be set up for receiving remittances from the public, towards the development of public hospitals.
Detailing the allocations for the sector, Mr. Balagopal took pride in the fact that the present government had expended over ₹2,545 crore under KASP so far, to provide free treatment to people.
KASP gets a chunk of the allocation, at ₹678.54 crore this year also. While Mr. Balagopal admitted that the actual expenditure under the scheme was nearly three times as much, what he did not acknowledge was that this has been at the expense of public hospitals or that the government has failed to modify the scheme from being a money guzzler.
Kerala ranks at the top of the country in the proportion of elderly people at 16.5% to the total population and it is projected to reach 20.9 % in 2031.
Given the rising proportion of people above 30 years with comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension, a good proportion of the elderly will have serious comorbidities and associated complications. However, this does not figure as a priority area in the Bbudget, nor are there any schemes or special allocations for geriatric health care.
Instead, the Minister has proposed that a scheme be formulated to set up ‘care centres’ for the health care and protection of elderly, including people from outside the State, and that the private sector participation may be sought for developing these centres to international standards.
