Post Budget Quote 2018 – Gaurav Malhotra CEO and Managing Director,Medicover Fertility

’’The Government has taken an initiative to provide health protection for secondary and tertiary hospitalization However, no step was taken towards the GST rates as input GST on medical devices, medicine and diagnostics make increase the total cost for the patient. There is a need to make healthcare affordable for the Poor and reduce the out of pocket expenses of diagnostics. Govt should also take steps to make infertility/IVF to bring under Insurance spectrum as in in India 13% of the couple are suffering from this but only 1% couple are availing treatment as cost is high and total treatment is out of pocket while in most of the countries it is under the insurance spectrum. The government has allotted an amount of Rs 600 crore for nutritional support for TB patients. This is a good Move as TB is one of the causes of increasing infertility among the young couples. Besides TB other lifestyle issues should also be taken care of’’.