Budget 2018: Public hails healthcare measures

A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed certain healthcare measures as a part of the Budget proposals for 2018-19, people across the country hailed the same.

While some termed the health and wellness centre scheme as the silver lining of the Budget, others termed it as good and useful for the poor people.

"The health and wellness centre scheme is the silver lining in this budget and will be a major reform.Proposal to establish 24 medical colleges is another welcome move, " said Manda Chiranjeevi Das, Management Consultant of Ramesh Hospitals in Vijayawada.

"This scheme, if implemented well, would be very good and useful for poor people like us. I hope we will see the effect on the ground," Rizwana, a local from Hubli, Karnataka.

"This will be extremely beneficial for us and very effective in the long run. I would like to thank the Central Government for this scheme," said Raj Mandal, a patient's attendant.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced two new measures under the government's Ayushman Bharat scheme, which are expected to take healthcare to greater heights.

The two measures are as below:

1. Rs 1,200 crores will be allocated towards setting up health and wellness centers in India, which will provide comprehensive healthcare, maternal and child care, free drugs and diagnostics to the poor. The government has also invited private sector contribution towards the same.

2. In a bid to increase the insurance cover for the poor, the government, under the flagship National Health Protection Scheme announced that a sum of up to Rs 5,00,000 will be provided to 10 crore poor families in India per year, which is expected to reach around 50 crore beneficiaries, and will be used for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

Apart from the above, Jaitley announced that a sum of Rs 600 crore will be provided for nutritional support to tuberculosis patients at a rate of Rs 500 per month. Additionally, 24 new government medical colleges and hospitals will be set up by upgrading existing district hospitals, thereby moving towards achieving universal health coverage.

These measures, Jaitley believes, will be crucial to building an efficient, productive New India, and would create additional jobs, especially for women.

He had further claimed that schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana will now expand to cover the lower strata of the society.

-ANI