India, Feb. 1 -- Sitharaman admits high out-of-pocket-expenditure worrying; claims '137%' hike to health and well-being in budget

The Union Budget 2021-22 allocated Rs 71,268.77 crore to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry - an increase of about 10 per cent from the previous year's budget estimates, according to Union Budget presented February 1, 2021.

The revised estimates for last year was Rs 78,866 crores. This implies the budgetary allocation to the Union health ministry came down by 9.6 per cent.

Sakthivel Selvaraj, a health economist with Public Health Foundation of India, called the allocation a wasted opportunity. "This year gave us an opportunity to be an outlier and allocate more than what had been done earlier. But ...