Budget 2017 wishlist: Expectations from the healthcare sector

Budget 2017 

Health care services to be exempt under the new GST regimen, says Rana Mehta

Sector size: $110 bn (2016)
Employment figure: 4.2 mn (2016) (Source Startup Page)
Contribution to GDP: 4.7% of GDP is spent on healthcare
(Source World Bank.org - Banking and Loans)

Key issues or areas of concern for each sector

• Need for introducing universal health care coverage with due weightage to quality of care delivered
• Growing burden of non-communicable disease

Sector demands

• Viable reimbursement models for the private sector
• Ensure GST is not applicable to health care services

Rana Mehta, Leader Healthcare, PwC

PwC point of view

• Health care services to be exempt under the new GST regimen. This will ensure greater accessibility to care and catalyse the growth of the industry
• Instituting a health care savings fund for all salaried employees similar to the PF scheme which would be tax deductible
• No GST on health insurance premiums to help better penetration
• Allowing a separate deduction for preventive health checks of Rs 10,000 per family. This will ensure early detection and treatment of disease

Sanjay Murdeshwar
Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited
“We expect to see an increased share of the GDP for health expenditure to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, asthma and cancer. Providing impetus to innovation such as newer health care delivery models, digital technologies and molecular diagnostics is needed to increase accuracy and efficiency in diagnosis and treatment of these diseases”

S Sridhar
Managing Director, Pfizer Ltd
“The health care expenditure should increase substantially from its current allocation, which is less than 2% of our GDP. The government should work towards effectively implementing a tiered pricing mechanism, like Jan Aushadhi that provides access to medicines in a targeted manner. It should also encourage private partnerships and other similar distribution platforms to scale up the Jan Aushadhi programme both geographically and through the availability of essential medicines” Read more