http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8H-eEpuSB8
Even those who feel that the exemptions would help reducing OOPs for renal patients say it would only be a blip in ensuring cost-effective medical equipment to patients here.
"Exempting duties for dialysis equipment is a very small step, because if you take the whole gamut medical technology today, 75% is still imported," said Bose. "If you see the total import cost for medical equipment, my guess is that dialysis represents only 0.5%-1% of it," he said.
Industry members also argue that retaining the recent hike in import duty on medical devices would actually work against a lot of the healthcare measures announced today like increasing the health insurance coverage to Rs1 lakh per family.
"On one side, they're trying to reduce (the OOP burden). On the other side, they've increased the cost of healthcare (by their recent import duty hike). Finally, the government will end up paying more," said Varun Khanna, chairman of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), an association of medical device manufacturers. "It's good that the government has started thinking on a disease vertical, but ideally, we should have a far broader spectrum for duty exemption and investment," he said.
According to Khanna, the recent hike could increase treatment costs for patients needing other medical devices by at least 7.5%. "Even a simple blood test could become more expensive," he said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/budget-2016-duty-waiver-for-dialysis-equipment-to-cut-costs-for-renal-patients/articleshow/51196293.cms
