Change Concept Of Budgeting From Allocation To Reallocation: Dr KK Aggarwal

Union Budget 2018 will be rolled out tomorrow. The Expectations from the last budget of the current central government are high.

A day away from the moment of truth, people are eagerly awaiting and debating the slew of likely announcements and reforms, but what actually is in store will be clear only when the finance minister opens his briefcase tomorrow at noon.

BW BusinessWorld talked to a few prominent stakeholders from the wellness sector to get their views on the budget expectations:

Dr. Bakshi of Bakson’s Homeopathy strongly feels that there is a requirement and opportunity to promote Ayush in rural areas and establish more AIIMS like hospitals, and that is where the fund allocation needs to be directed.

“There is a need for rural penetration of Ayurveda and Homeopathy for the quackery to stop. We need to give enough importance to wellness and preventive health since most focus is on treatment and not prevention,” he said.

Physician, cardiologist, spiritual writer, and motivational speaker, Padma Shri Awardee Dr. K K Aggarwal believes that, the union budget should address the concept of “One Health”, which recognizes that the health of people, animals, and the environment are connected.

“All kinds of budgets are linked with health. The concept of direct and indirect health needs to be connected. There is a need to change the concept of budgeting from allocation to reallocation. Reallocation of preventive care and integration of various areas into one department that focuses on wellness is the need of the hour. At present, ministries of health, agriculture and cooperation, rural development, environment and climate change, ICMR, ICAR, IARI, etc., are looking after their respective matters of human concern,” he pointed out.

He highlighted that, “A budget that focuses on overall health and wellness will directly also contribute to better productivity.”

“A common budget needs to be allocated for various health programmes so that there is more intersectoral cooperation and sharing of knowledge takes place. With this, overlapping of programmes in these ministries will also go away to a large extent and result in more saving of financial outflow”, emphasised Dr. Aggarwal.

Co-founder and COO, of digital preventive health startup Healthi, Rekuram Varadharaj pointed out that though last years budget called for turning 1.5 lakh health sub-centers to health and wellness centers for ensuring quality service, no major steps towards incentivizing utilization of such government or other relevant private resources that are according to him are becoming increasingly available.

Healthi conducted a survey titled ‘HEALTHI INSIGHTS INDIA 2017’ which highlighted the fact that about 91% Indians consider health a priority and intend to make lifestyle changes.

According to Varadharaj, “Incentives would help drive such awareness to concrete action and preempt the burden of diseases like diabetes, hypertension or heart disease from detracting from the nation’s human capital.”

Rekuram hopes that the budget this year will focus on some particular provisions for women’s health and wellness programmes. “While women start out being as healthy, or healthier than their male counterparts below the age of 40, our analysis shows that the picture reverses by the time they turn 40,” he shared. Hence the need for changes.

Preventive health and wellness are assuming more importance today than ever before. Many startups such as Lybrate, India’s first and largest online doctor consultation platform, are helping provide quality access to healthcare and wellness as well as making healthcare accessible at the click of a button.

Saurabh Arora, Founder & CEO, Lybrate hopes that the union budget will focus on digitizing the healthcare space further.

“The doctor-to-patient ratio in India is highly skewed. This makes access to affordable and quality healthcare a major roadblock for many. While our platform has taken a major step in this direction by connecting millions of users to doctors for consultation, there is also a need for a governmental push towards this end. The health app space is in a very nascent stage in the country and has a lot of scope. Internet penetration, along with the massive usage of smartphones can script a new future of healthcare delivery in India. It will be good to see the budget providing some incentives in this area,” he said.

Preeti Rao, Founder Welji, India’s first ever, Health and Wellness Coaching Centre wishes that the government should incentivise technological innovation for wellbeing/ wellness. Tax cuts and subsidies in this sector will lead more active engagement of private player to focus on prevention and proactive wellness initiatives.

“Reduction in taxation for health and wellness startups would be a great move and will encourage more players to enter this space with cutting edge innovative idea to solve the problem of lifestyle diseases and enabling scalability of access to these solutions to the masses,” Rao shared.

Gautam Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO of BeatO, a smart Diabetes Care & Management App highlighted the increase in diabetes incidence amongst children and young adults.

Chopra culled out key expectations from the health budget 2018 based on the demands of Indian medical system with respect to diabetes – both treatment as well as prevention:

“There is a growing need to educate the masses about the risk factors of diabetes, the complications involved right from the preliminary to the advanced stage and what preventive steps can be taken by people in everyday life to limit diabetes cases in India. This requires allocating funds to train people and create a pool of diabetes educators (apart from the medically qualified doctors who treat diabetes). These educators would focus towards spreading education about diabetes among masses and answer their queries, especially for those living in remote areas where medical facilities and awareness are not up to the mark at the grass root level, and even in urban cities in schools among children to prevent early onset of diabetes.

Additionally, a large number of Indian population suffers from diabetes but does not get a timely diagnosis, following which their chances of developing other health complications like heart, kidney, liver, eyes, and foot related problems increases. For this, local clinics and camps for frequent blood tests to measure blood glucose and timely intervention need to be started,” he stated.

Gyms and fitness industry players feel that there is a need to reduce GST on gyms and fitness services because they are providing better health to the masses.

Ashish Aggarwal partner Transform gyms said that, “With the competition, the market is very bad. So some relief would be welcome. We are promoting preventive health and yet the benefits usually go to those that provide treatment.”

The countdown has begun.