Notwithstanding the repeated claims by the Union Government, the proposed plan of universal health coverage by making available free drugs at the public healthcare facilities across the country will not take off this year at least, as no specific allocation was made yet for the same.

According to the budget proposals, presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the total allocation has increased only slightly from Rs.30,702 crores in the last budget to Rs.33,278 crore this time for the Department of Health and Family Welfare. However, no allocation has been made specifically for the universal coverage scheme, which itself required Rs.30,000 crore for five years as per the initial calculations.

In fact, the provision for new schemes has come down by third this time. The allocation for the next year is Rs.618.87 crore from Rs.1853.92 crore in last year’s budget. This was Rs.1197.36 crore for 2010-11. Out of this allocation which is used for many programmes, the actual content for new initiatives is just Rs.148.23 crore this time against Rs.256.24 crore of the previous year, virtually snubbing out the possibility of the universal health coverage scheme.

According to the budget document, the other schemes allocation “provides for various health schemes, institutions engaged in healthcare such as oversight committee, prevention and control of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and certain new initiatives such as programme for health care for elderly, strengthening of inter-sectorial coordination of prevention and control of zoonotic diseases, health insurance, viral hepatitis etc.”

However, on the positive side, the Central Drugs and Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) which is tasked to maintain the quality of drugs in the country got a good hike in the allocation. The allocation has gone up from Rs.74.10 crore in the last budget to Rs.202.36 crore this time, with planning outlay forming the big chunk of Rs.179.86 crore against Rs.52.60 crore last time.