Budget 2018: 'Modicare' a good first step, but where will money come from?

A serious illness can be a crushing financial burden for many Indian families, with out-of-pocket expenditure constituting well over 50% of the country's total health spending

Credit where credit is due. The flagship health insurance programme launched by the Modi government in Budget 2018 is a good first step towards providing health coverage to all. However, where is the money? The new scheme is an extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), which has been allocated Rs 20 billion (Rs 2,000 crore) in Budget 2018. A sum of Rs 10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore) was allocated to RSBY in Budget 2017 and the revised figures for 2017-18 stood at Rs 4.70 billion (Rs 470.52 crore). Compare this to the Rs 3.02 trillion