The Telangana Health, Medical and Family welfare department received Rs 11,468 crore for the fiscal year 2024-25, a decrease of Rs 693 crore from the previous budget of Rs 12,161 crore. The allocation constitutes 5.69% of the state’s expenditure on health which is lower than the 6% average allocation of health by states.
Additionally, the budget for health is lesser than the Rs 11,500 crore health allocation made by the Congress government in its vote on account budget in February 2024.
The health expenditure in Telangana’s budgets has always been less than the average allocation of 6%. In 2020-21 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4.3% of the total budget was spent on health, while in 2021-22 the health expenditure decreased further to 3.3%. It finally increased in 2022-23 to 5%
In his budget speech, Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka stated that after forming the government, the Telangana Congress appointed 6,959 nurses. “We have also strengthened the Rajiv Arogyashri Yojana coverage from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and expanded its scope to include 163 new diseases,” he said. The Rajiv Aarogyashri scheme has been branded by the Congress government as their attempt at universalising healthcare.
The Deputy CM also stated that a new digital health profile card to everyone with a unique identification number will be issued under the state government to “make a citizen's health information available at one place” to aid in easy diagnosis and prompt treatment.