Health insurance should see tax reductions and special incentives for senior citizens

Jyotsna Govil, Chairperson Indian Cancer Society

“There is an urgent need to advance digital health infrastructure, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and rural areas, to enhance health coverage and support existing facilities. Reforms in cancer care are essential, prioritising funding for advanced treatments like personalised medicine and immunotherapy to make these therapies accessible to more patients. Health insurance should see tax reductions and special incentives for senior citizens to increase coverage and reach a wider audience across the country. The government should also aim to encourage HPV vaccination for girls across the country and bring down the costs of vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer. The vaccination should be made available at nominal charges for girls in rural areas. Attracting private players and commercial capital to the sector is crucial to bridge existing gaps, especially in areas where low-profit margins deter private service providers.”

Sachidanand Upadhyay, Managing Director of Lord’s Mark Industries

”The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are poised for robust growth due to heightened awareness of preventive wellness, continuing infrastructure development and policy support, rising healthcare demand and technology interventions. Therefore, the budget should create an enabling framework with favourable policy support to boost innovation, market accessibility and affordability. India becoming self-reliant in healthcare delivery and India emerging as a global pharma powerhouse will further accelerate our economic growth and help us climb the global value chain. We expect the government to increase the health budget to boost infrastructure development to include more and more people under healthcare coverage. The budget also needs to propose measures to boost public-private partnerships to ensure better healthcare outcomes in the country. In addition, the government needs to announce measures to incentivise R&D to facilitate an effective value chain integration. The pharma sector also seeks favourable support in terms of a board-based production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to build export competitiveness.’

Sanjay Vyas, Executive VP and Managing Director, Parexel India

“We are witnessing a dynamic shift in the pharmaceutical landscape. The industry’s push for R&D incentives is a welcome sign. With this focus in mind, expectations towards similar allocation of budget towards these areas is expected from the upcoming budget.

With the Indian Pharmaceutical sector trying to reach the USD 130 Billion target by 2030, there is a renewed spirit of research in the areas of cell and gene therapy, new molecular entities, biologics and biosimilars. A strong focus on innovation will not only propel India’s generics market but also make it a hub for ground-breaking therapies. We’re particularly interested in collaborations that leverage India’s strengths in clinical research infrastructure and patient diversity. By fostering a collaborative environment between industry, research institutions, and the government, we can unlock India’s potential to become a global leader in pharmaceutical innovation.

The budget can also focus on technological advancements such as Gen AI, where the government can boost investments in AI, identify new research areas for the pharma sectors and additionally promote academia-industry collaboration. The budget can also focus on implementing centralised data repositories for the country such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) and a centralised medical record database, to maintain transparency and avoid discrepancies.” 

Dr B S Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman, HealthCare Global Enterprises

“A higher percentage of GDP allocation to healthcare is a long pending demand, hope it will be met in good measure in this budget. Over the years, the government has taken many measures towards making healthcare affordable and accessible for the deprived sections of society. However, schemes like Ayushman Bharat are unflinchingly focused on subsidised treatment; the quality aspect is yet largely ignored. This ‘cost of low cost’ is unknowingly doing a great disservice to the larger cause of healthcare, which is about ensuring sustainable outcomes for all patients, irrespective of their financial capacities and wherewithal.  

As a short-term measure, the insurance cover for healthcare needs to be significantly expanded; such that a growing number of cashless transactions will help patients spread across the nation get the best treatment the first time, which in complex diseases like cancer makes all the difference. But the real transformation will happen only when an effective universal healthcare model is rolled out like many other nations have done with good results. The healthcare sector rightfully demands unlimited pay-outs and widespread use of the latest advancements – both clinical and technological – for ensuring lasting outcomes and quality of life for patients. We appeal to the finance minister to set up a multi-disciplinary committee of domain experts to study the root cause that has prevented us from taking the big leap forward, and collaboratively arrive at feasible solutions that are not fixated on the cost but take into account the quality factor as well.”