Union Budget 2021: PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojna announced, health budget hiked by whopping 137 percent

Union Budget 2021 India: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while announcing the Union budget has announced a new health scheme named PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojna. FM Sitharaman while announcing the budget said that the scheme will strengthen the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary health centres across the country.

While announcing the health scheme, Sitharaman said that the government intends to strengthen three core areas of the health sector in the country namely- Preventive care, Curative care and Well Being. The total outlay sanctioned for the new health scheme amounts to Rs 64,180 crores for a period of six years. The Finance Minister also informed that Integrated Public Health laboratories and critical health care centres will also be established as part of the new scheme

The FM also clarified that the PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojna is being launched in addition to and over and above the currently ongoing health schemes and projects in the country such as National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) which also aims at strengthening the Primary Health Sector in the rural areas of the country.

The Finance Minister in a major announcement said that the government will sanction a total of Rs 35000 crore for Coronavirus vaccination programme to be undertaken in the country in the year 2021-22. Taking into account the outlay for the new PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojna, expenditure under the COvid-19 vaccination head and the regular healthcare schemes in the country the Union Health department outlay will swell up to an amount of Rs 2.23 lakh crore, as per the budget announcements.

Lauding the government for its enhanced focus on the healthcare sector, Sitharaman said that the health budget has increased by a whopping 137 percent this year. The budget outlay for the health sector in the last financial year was about Rs 94,452 crore.

Various health experts and doctors were expecting a huge increase in the outlay for the Health sector in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and their expectations have been fulfilled to a large extent with an increase of about 137 percent in the health budget.