There were only three healthcare-related announcements in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman`s budget speech, with one applicable only to Bihar. This led healthcare professionals to deem the budget as maintaining the `status quo` with very little to look forward to.

A total of Rs 90,958.63 crore has been allotted for the health sector, with R87,656.90 crore allocated to the department of health and family welfare and R3,301.73 crore to the department of health research. The increase is a little over 12 per cent from the revised estimates of the previous year, however, it is still not 2.5 per cent of the GDP as it had promised in its National Health Policy, 2017.