While the inconsequential theatrics of the budget session of parliament gave the country a bag full of drawing room conversations, meaningful discussions were few and far in between.

With defence allocations rising, Budget 2026 poses a larger question: is public health being treated as core national security or merely as a peripheral welfare concern?

Though Health Budget 2026 improves on last year by preserving allocations and modestly expanding select programmes, it still remains cautious to the point of complacency.

On the positive side, it protects core health spending, marginally increases allocations for primary care under the National Health Mission, strengthens insurance coverage through Ayushman Bharat, and signals clear policy confidence in preventive and wellness-oriented care, including AYUSH. Disease surveillance and post-pandemic preparedness have also been maintained.

While it marginally raises allocations and avoids cutting core programmes, it once again sidesteps the central problem exposed by repeated CAG audits: the health system’s inability to translate budgets into functioning services. States routinely underspend, posts remain vacant, and facilities lie idle. Yet the budget responds with more money rather than tighter accountability.

By privileging announcement over execution and stability over reform, Health Budget 2026 risks normalising a dangerous equilibrium: rising allocations alongside empty sub-centres and overburdened district hospitals.

And for rural India, the test is no longer budget size, but whether the system can convert allocations into staffed facilities, stocked medicines, and reliable care.

There is no point in throwing big numbers around on budgets that never get utilised.

Allocation does not automatically translate into delivery. 

Consider Bihar, a state that continues to grapple with some of the country’s highest disease burdens and fragile primary health indicators. A November 2024 CAG audit found that the state utilised only 69% of its allocated health funds between 2016 and 2022. A staggering 31% remained unspent even as outbreaks, staffing shortages, and failing facilities persisted. 

When a third of health funds go unused in a state that can least afford it, outrage is not excessive. It is rational.

Bihar alone does not define the national picture. But it forces an uncomfortable question for Budget 2026: will higher allocations strengthen public health or merely inflate the ledger?

A general indifference to public health persists, astonishingly, even after a pandemic that exposed the fragility of our systems. This is not an abstract policy debate; it is the daily management of risk, vulnerability and human life.

Public health is not a joke. It is not a routine posting. The figures in reports are not random numbers; they represent real human beings. There is no room for any slacking here. It demands seriousness at every level of governance, because when systems falter, the consequences are lived, not theoretical.

Instead of muting facts or treating data as inconvenient, governments should invite scrutiny. Citizens must be partners in disease surveillance, not passive recipients of information. Early detection contains outbreaks. Silence allows them to spiral.

Public health is no less vital than defence. One protects borders; the other protects bodies. The vigilance we reserve for our borders must extend to our health systems. Safeguarding the nation’s wellbeing demands surveillance as sharp as intelligence gathering, response systems as swift as mobilisation, and leadership that does not flinch.

We do not tolerate drift at the border. We do not excuse inattention in matters of national security. Why then is indifference in public health treated as routine? If defence requires generals, public health requires commanders of equal resolve. The stakes are no smaller.

Now let’s look at the numbers allotted to both ministries in the current budget.

The Ministry of Defence was allocated ₹7.85 lakh crore in the 2026–27 Union Budget — the largest share among all ministries.

The health sector allocation in the Union Budget 2026–27 is approximately ₹1.05 lakh crore across various health programmes and ministries.

While Defence spending accounts for roughly 14–15% of the total central government expenditure in 2026–27, Health share of total expenditure is around 1.9%–2% of the total budget.

Looking at the current world scenario obviously defence needs more allocation, no arguments on that but how come even those in the middle of a war or in close proximity are spending much less on defence and significantly higher on Health. 

Before the Ukraine war (pre-2022), most European governments spent around 17–21% of total public expenditure on health and only 2–4% on defence. For example, Germany allocated roughly 19% to health and 2.5% to defence, France about 18–19% to health and 3–3.5% to defence, and the United Kingdom nearly 20% to health versus 4% to defence. After 2022, defence spending rose sharply but remained well below health. Like Germany increased defence to about 3.5–4% of expenditure while health stayed near 18–19%; France lifted defence to around 4–4.5% with health largely unchanged; and the UK pushed defence towards 5–5.5% while continuing to devote over one-fifth of public spending to health. Even in this heightened security environment, Europe largely expanded defence without cutting health, reinforcing the view that public healthcare remains a core pillar of national security.

The defence–health comparison is not about choosing between borders and hospitals, but about recognising that national strength depends on both. Even with a war on its doorstep, Europe protected health as core infrastructure. India’s Budget 2026 shows intent, but security will ultimately be judged not by allocations alone, but by execution. Whether funds reach primary care, states spend on time, and rural clinics, sub-centres, and frontline services actually work where people live.

And since the favourite topic in films and TV currently is war, why don’t we start a war to eliminate at least every preventable disease in the country. That should not be a big deal for an alpha regime. 

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