Union Budget 2026 must put prevention at the heart of India’s health strategy

India’s health system carries a persistent imbalance. We spend most of our resources treating illness in hospitals, while a large share of our disease burden is preventable. Non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health conditions now dominate mortality, even as tuberculosis, malnutrition and maternal-child health challenges continue in vulnerable regions. Union Budget 2026 is an opportunity to correct course — shifting the system from treatment to prevention, from episodic care to lifelong health.

This shift is not only a social imperative; it is an economic one. Preventive care reduces avoidable hospital admissions, protects household savings, improves workforce productivity and strengthens long-term growth. Every rupee invested in prevention saves many more in tertiary care and lost income. At a time of tight fiscal space, prevention offers one of the highest-return public investments India can make.

Union Budget 2026 can be a budget for long-term national strengthen towards Viksit Bharat 2026 and mark the moment India re-orients its health system toward prevention, equity and resilience — strengthening primary care, protecting households from financial distress and enabling a healthier, more productive nation. Choosing prevention today will yield benefits for decades. The most powerful reform is also the most intuitive: help people stay healthy, instead of only treating them after they fall. 

Primary healthcare as the frontline of prevention

The foundation of this transition must be a stronger primary care system. Ayushman Bharat’s Health and Wellness Centres have created a national platform for community-level services. The Budget should accelerate the conversion of remaining sub-centres and PHCs into fully functional HWCs that operate as prevention-led hubs — providing NCD screening, mental health counselling, tele-consultation and long-term follow-up, rather than episodic treatment alone. Ensuring all Centres are achieve the NQAS accreditation standards, ensuring quality of care, should be taken up in mission mode.

Urban primary care remains a major gap. Dedicated allocations for urban PHCs, mobile clinics and outreach services are essential to reach migrant workers, informal settlements and peri-urban communities that often fall outside formal coverage.

Mission-mode action on NCDs and cancer screening

India cannot meet its development aspirations without confronting the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. The Budget should support a mission-mode programme for annual screening of adults aged 30+, backed by national registries for trauma, hypertension, diabetes and priority cancers such as breast, cervical and oral cancer. Screening must be matched with affordability: free or low-cost generics and diagnostics at PHCs, along with stronger tobacco and alcohol cessation services, can prevent costly complications later.

Fiscal policy can reinforce health goals. Incremental sin taxes on tobacco and sugary beverages, ring-fenced for NCD prevention, would align revenue mobilisation with better population health.

Investing in people and digital public infrastructure

Reform succeeds only when the workforce delivering it is empowered. India needs state-level public health cadres, epidemiologists and better-supported frontline workers — ASHAs, ANMs and MPWs. Training in NCD counselling, geriatric care and mental health, paired with digital tools and fair incentives, will strengthen the last mile of prevention.

Digital health can be transformative when it supports real care. ABDM-linked personal health records, follow-up registries for NCDs and maternal-child health, and tele-health for preventive counselling should be backed by data-quality incentives so technology improves continuity of care instead of adding administrative burden.

Mental health and substance-use prevention must move centre-stage

Mental health remains one of India’s most under-treated burdens. The Budget should expand the District Mental Health Programme to all districts, integrate school- and workplace-based prevention and counselling, and strengthen tele-psychiatry and crisis helplines. Substance-use prevention and harm-reduction services deserve similar priority to avert long-term social and economic loss.

Health beyond healthcare

The drivers of poor health often lie outside the health sector and are among the most ignored and neglected. Air pollution, heat stress, unsafe roads, inadequate sanitation and unplanned urban design silently raise disease risk. The Union Budget should institutionalise co-funded, cross-ministerial programmes on pollution control, climate-health adaptation, road safety, WASH and healthy-city design — embedding a genuine “Health in All Policies” approach in India’s development model.

Rewarding prevention through smarter financing

Perhaps the strongest lever lies in financial reform. Results-based transfers to states — tied to improved screening coverage, treatment adherence and reductions in avoidable hospitalisations — can re-align incentives toward prevention. Pilot capitation or bundled-payment models under AB-PM-JAY can encourage providers and insurers to invest in early intervention rather than late-stage care.