The solution with numbers: The Economic Survey, 2020-21 recommended that we need to raise the spend on healthcare services from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP, to “reduce the out-of-pocket-expenditure (OOPE) from 65% to 35% of the overall healthcare spend".
Moreover, we stand at 179th position out of 189 countries when it comes to prioritization of health in its government budgets (consolidated union and state government).
We know how the limited budget on healthcare left little fiscal room for powering the primary healthcare centres, especially in rural India.
From hospital beds to oxygen cylinders, the struggle cost us many lives. To be prepared for the future, we must build a resilient healthcare system. Future-ready healthcare professionals:The pandemic brought to fore the underlying threat of non-communicable diseases, where 1 in four Indians is at risk of dying from a non-communicable disease (NCD) before 70 years of age, i.e.