Health gets over 9 per cent hike, push for cancer care, additional 10,000 medical seats

NEW DELHI: The health sector received a 9.47 per cent hike in the Union Budget 2025, with a major push given to public health, especially cancer care, as the government announced a series of measures, including setting up daycare centres in all district hospitals over the next three years.

Delivering on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last year Independence Day promise to add 75,000 more medical seats in the next five year, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech on Saturday, announced that “in the next year, 10,000 additional seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals, towards the goal of adding 75,000 seats in the next 5 years.”

She said the government had added almost 1.1 lakh undergraduate and post-graduate medical education seats in 10 years, an increase of 130%.

The total allocation for the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, excluding the Department of Research, is 95,957. 87 crore, up from 87,656.9 crore in the previous year.

According to Dr Sarit Kumar Rout, Professor of Health Economics and Financing at the Indian Institute of Public Health Bhubaneswar, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), “Only 9.47% increase in Health and Family Welfare budget compared to 2024-25 BE in absolute terms, and if adjusted to inflation, it is a moderate increase.”