Does Modi Care?

Usually the Budget is an annual financial exercise with a little tinge of political messaging. The ritual this year was different. On Thursday, in Parliament, FM Jaitley read out a whole catalogue of schemes, while also referring to revenue and expenditure details that would affect over 1.3 billion Indians. Captivating announcements were made with catchy slogans — “ease of living”, “minimum government and maximum governance”, “premium on honesty”,  “blackboard to digital board” and “the new India” — unmindful of the ground realities. Even promises have been made like fixing MSPs at a minimum “one and half times” of the farmer’s input cost and the universal health insurance that would allow the poor to avail quality healthcare.

In exuberance, the government officials termed “Ayushman Bharat Programme” as “Modicare” — and touted it as the largest public healthcare programme globally. But, the people living in the world’s largest democracy must anyway get the universal healthcare facilities as a matter of their constitutional right. Good that the Modi government has made a beginning in this direction with a big announcement, but with a tiny Rs 2,000 crore budget.

Political announcements remain shallow promises unless they are tied up with funds and other resources. “Modicare”, the flagship scheme to provide Rs 5 lakh per family medical cover to over 50 crore poor, needs about Rs 11,000 crore annually. The Rs 2,000 crore tokenism reduces this Budget announcement to yet another promise ahead of the general election. “Modicare” is an enormous project for a cash-strapped country that has already tripped from the path of fiscal prudence. There are other knotty issues involved with its implementation. The most difficult one is the identification of the beneficiaries belonging to the vulnerable section. Misuse of mediclaim policies, particularly by private hospitals notorious for overcharging, is another problem that needs to be addressed effectively. Shortage of hospitals and doctors are other constraints. A well-intentioned government normally prefers to tie up all loose ends before announcing an important scheme. FM Jaitley must, however, take definitive steps for unveiling a properly-planned “Modicare” with adequate funds to avoid the repeat of “Obamacare”, a noble plan that invited notoriety because of the erroneous funding mechanism.