THE MAHARASHTRA government has hugely constricted spending on health, despite the Covid epidemic, activists of Jan Arogya Abhiyan (JAA) alleged on Friday, further demanding a public explanation of the rationale behind the alleged massive under-spending on life saving health services. “Responsible political and administrative leadership must be held publicly accountable,” JAA activists said in a statement.
Overall, Maharashtra Public health department has spent just 46.7 per cent of its allocated budget despite the financial year being nearly over. Similarly, spending by the medical education department is just 49.7 per cent of the annual budget.
The state government’s spending on the critical National Rural Health Mission, which is responsible for supporting services in rural areas, is also grossly inadequate. Out of Rs 1,583 crore for NRHM (state share), less than one-third (32.3 per cent) has been spent, while out of the Central share of Rs 2,472 crore, only 41.3 per cent has been spent until now, Dr Abhay Shukla , noted public health activist with the JAA claimed. JAA activists, including Dr Anant Phadke, said they had conducted an analysis of the actual expenditure on the health sector made by Maharashtra government during the current financial year (2021-22).
“On February 14, we have completed 10.5 months, that is, 5/6 of this financial year is over. In this context, the findings are shocking since there is gross constriction of spending, which is leading to strangulation of critical resources such as staff payments and medicines, which are urgently required to ensure health services for patients and people on the ground,” the statement added.
Despite the Covid epidemic severely hitting major cities of Maharashtra, and massive need to support and upgrade urban health services, only 1.03 per cent of National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) funds have been spent until now.
Essential medicines are extremely important for treatment of Covid as well as non-Covid patients, and usage of medicines is expected to have majorly increased in this financial year, the activists claimed.
Only six percent of the public health department budget on Supplies and Materials (which is mostly medicines) of Rs 1,733 crore has been spent while the medical education department which runs medical colleges allocated Rs 344 crore on medicines, of which just Rs 70 crore or 20 per cent has actually been spent. Health and Medical education departments combined had allocated Rs 2,077 crore for supplies and materials (including medicines and oxygen) during this year, but have spent only Rs 180 crore (8.6 per cent of the budgeted amount).
Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MPJAY) insurance scheme has a focus on providing coverage for BPL families for treatment up to Rs1.5 lakh, while Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) is supposed to provide additional coverage for secondary and tertiary care up to Rs 5 lakh; Maharashtra is implementing both the schemes jointly. During the Covid period in 2020 and 2021, the scheme has been expanded to cover 100 per cent of the state population, including Covid and non-Covid patients.
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