Budget 2021-22 wishlist: Here are the key challenges in health care sector

Key challenges

• Postponement of electives Patients have been delaying elective surgeries on  fear of catching infection
• Stress on infra Govt had to reserve beds in hospitals for Covid treatment and create significant temporary capacity  
• Drop in medical travel: Ban on international travel prevented foreigners coming to India to avail treatment 
• Returns lower than cost of capital:  Many providers earn return in single digits
• Lack of skilled human resource It impedes health care delivery 
• Imports of medical devices and equipment: Close to 75% of medical devices are imported leading to forex loss
• Continuing low reimbursement rates under PMJAY It’s unattractive for private sector to participate in the programme

Industry ask

• Incentivise creation of adequate infra to deal with the triple disease burden
• Mandate PPP in other clinical procedures and hospitals like it has been done in dialysis
• Leveraging private sector expertise to vaccinate a billion people n Rationalise the GST structure for hospitals
• Tax sops:  Reduce tax rates from 25% to 15% for establishing new private hospitals; provide tax benefits in proportion to revenue generated from treating medical value travel patients
• A dedicated fund for health care start-ups, which are working on enhancing access and reducing costs
• Monitor PLI scheme and revisit incentives for domestic manufacturing