Union Budget 2026–27: Industry leaders call for prevention-led healthcare and stronger public investment

Neha Sinha, Dementia Specialist and CEO & co-founder of Epoch Elder Care:

“India is rapidly transitioning from a demographic dividend to a demographic responsibility. With over 168 million senior citizens today—a number projected to nearly double by 2050—we must urgently reimagine how we finance and deliver eldercare. Ageing is increasingly accompanied by complex non-communicable diseases, dementia, and mental health challenges, yet public programmes like NPHCE and NAPSrC remain underfunded and unevenly implemented. Families are forced to bear rising out-of-pocket costs for specialised geriatric and dementia care, often without insurance or adequate tax relief. The upcoming budget presents an opportunity to strengthen elderly healthcare through enhanced funding, GST rationalisation for senior care services, expanded tax deductions, workforce development, and long-term care insurance frameworks. These reforms are essential to build a sustainable, dignified, and accessible eldercare ecosystem for India’s ageing population.”

Sanjay Bhutani, Director, MTaI: 

“In an ageing India, the Union Budget is an opportunity to signal that living longer must also mean seeing those extra years in good health, mobility and dignity. Eye‑health, particularly when common conditions like cataract affect a large share of older adults and place a heavier burden on poorer and rural households, needs to be treated as core primary care rather than a discretionary or lifestyle expense.

A calibrated expansion of public spending on eye‑health services can yield returns far beyond the health sector by preventing avoidable vision loss, reducing falls and injuries, and enabling seniors to remain active, independent participants in family and economic life. Framing eye‑care as a foundational public good in the Budget, on par with other essential health priorities will help ensure that the years added by medical progress are matched by years lived with clarity, safety and true quality of life.”

Dr Kanika Batra Modi:

“For Union Budget 2026–27, we should see a stronger policy push on early detection, affordable diagnostics, and district-ready treatment pathways for gynaecological cancers—areas that remain underserved despite the rising burden.

India needs organised cervical screening with clear referral pathways, easier access to colposcopy, biopsy, and imaging at the district level, and dedicated investments in oncology training to improve timely, stage-appropriate care for women.

In Union Budget 2025–26, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare allocation increased to ₹99,859 crore, and the announcement of Day Care Cancer Centres across district hospitals—200 proposed in FY 2025–26—was a positive step toward decentralising cancer care. However, late presentation and high out-of-pocket diagnostic costs continue to worsen outcomes.

Budget 2026–27 can accelerate impact by funding structured screening programmes, subsidising essential diagnostics, and strengthening specialist workforce capacity—enabling earlier diagnosis, reduced mortality, and more equitable cancer care for women nationwide.”

Dr Syed Samar Abbas, Director,  IGMPI:

”As the Union Budget 2026-27 comes closer, there’s a real chance to make India’s healthcare, life sciences, and skill development sectors even stronger. In the last Budget, the healthcare sector was allocated nearly ₹98,300 crore, showing a clear focus on expanding infrastructure and services.
From an institutional perspective, continued support for research, quality systems, and skill development in regulated sectors is critical. The focus should stay on the basics and serious skill training in areas like diagnostics, clinical work, and making medicines and devices at home. Targeted allocations toward preventive screening and disease resilience will help ensure trained professionals are available. A smart Budget can tie it all together: less dependence on imports, better early detection, and a workforce ready for today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges in life sciences. This is about creating a health system that actually works for every family and keeps India moving forward”.

Masaharu Morita, Founder and Program Director, NURA – AI Health Screening Centre:

As India prepares for the Union Budget, there is a crucial opportunity to reorient healthcare towards prevention and early intervention. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) continue to place a growing burden on individuals, families and public health systems, yet many conditions remain undetected until advanced stages. Strengthening structured screening programmes and enabling technology-led risk assessment can help identify disease earlier, improve outcomes and reduce avoidable hospitalisation. Targeted policy support for preventive health infrastructure, workforce training and data-driven screening models can optimise long-term healthcare spending while easing pressure on tertiary care facilities. Encouraging public-private collaboration and integrating preventive screening into primary care pathways will be key to building a more sustainable system. A forward-looking budget that prioritises early detection, personalised risk profiling and preventive care can help India move from a treatment-centric approach to a healthier, more resilient population. This shift will support affordability, equity, productivity, and long-term national well-being across diverse communities nationwide and sustainably.

Vivek Tiwari, Angel investor and serial entrepreneur :

I am really counting on Budget 2026-27 to keep the ball rolling from last year, pumping healthcare spending up to 2.5-5 per cent of GDP and doubling down on making med-tech stand on its own feet and think on extended PLI schemes for APIs, devices, and those deep-tech funding buckets that could make all the difference. We need GST zeroed out on life-saving kit, R&D tax credits cranked to 200 per cent for health-tech startups, B2B rules slashed to cut costs 30-40 per cent, RoDTEP exports boosted to 2 per cent, and ₹5 lakh credit cards rolled out for 10 lakh micro-businesses that would let companies reach those hard-to-get rural spots and explode growth-wise.

We also need public-private tie-ups for AI diagnostics, more telemedicine through rural broadband at PHCs, and easy loans for Tier-III hospitals. Angel investors like me are pushing for relaxed SEBI regulations on health-tech funding and some real gap financing to get med-tech plants up and running. This kind of push could skyrocket India’s $200 crore med-tech world straight to unicorn territory, mixing breakneck growth with healthy profits at those 40 per cent yearly clips.