Praja Arogya Vedika seeks higher health outlay in 2026-27 Budget

A delegation of Praja Arogya Vedika met Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav and Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare Minister Satya Kumar Yadav in Amaravati on February 11(Wednesday) and submitted a memorandum seeking a substantial increase in allocations to the health sector in the 2026-27 Budget.

In a press statement, PAV president M. V. Ramanaiah and general secretary T. Kameswar Rao said the memorandum underscored what they described as persistently low public health spending in Andhra Pradesh. They stated that the 2025-26 Budget provided ₹19,264 crore for health, which works out to about 1.05% of the GSDP and is significantly lower than the benchmarks suggested in the National Health Policy 2017 and by the World Health Organisation.

They said inadequate funding had resulted in gaps in primary and preventive healthcare, shortage of human resources, weak rural and tribal infrastructure, and insufficient measures to address malnutrition and anaemia among women and children.

Among the key demands, the organisation sought an increase in health allocation to at least 2.5% of the GSDP, which would require an additional ₹20,000 to ₹25,000 crore over the previous outlay. It also called for prioritising primary and preventive healthcare, introducing a special health package for tribal areas, strengthening the Public Distribution System to tackle high levels of malnutrition, filling vacancies and bridging infrastructure gaps, upgrading 104 and 108 emergency services, and clearing pending payments under NTR Vaidya Seva.

The delegation expressed concern over what it termed excessive dependence on privatisation and public private partnership models in the health sector. It demanded development of RCD Hospital in Visakhapatnam into a super specialty children’s hospital, strengthening of AIIMS at Mangalagiri, expansion of the Kakani Cancer Data Centre, and upgrading VIMS into a postgraduate and research centre.

The members urged the government to focus on publicly funded and equitable healthcare rather than medical tourism or high-end public private partnerships, which they cautioned could widen inequalities. They also appealed to Opposition MLAs to highlight these issues during the discussion on the State Budget in the ongoing Assembly session.