The Prime Minister Hon. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth presented on 11 June 2019 the National Budget for year 2019-2020.  According to Hon. P. K. Jugnauth, the 2019-2020 budget speaks to the aspirations of youth, men and women and above all, to the well-being of the Mauritian population.

The Government of Mauritius is placing high priority on improving health and the well-being of the population, especially by addressing Noncommunicable Diseases, and this is reflected in some of the majors decisions announced by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance to improve the public health sector as follows:

• An appropriate budgeting and financing based on health priorities: The Total expenditure for 2019-2020 amounts to Rs 138.6 billion, of which the budget for the public health sector is Rs 13.1 billion.  This represents 9.5% of the total budget, and compared to last year’s budget, an increase of 7.4% is noted on the budget allocated to the public health sector. The national budget 2019-2020 makes provision for a medical Insurance Scheme for public sector employees. In fact, Government will fully pay the insurance premium for the public sector employees earning less than Rs 10,000, while those earning more than Rs 10,000 will contribute half and Government will pay the other half of the premium;
•  Further consolidating the role of Primary Health Care as the centre of care.  The Government of Mauritius will increase the number of primary health facilities by constructing a modern warehouse for pharmaceutical products, the 1^st Teaching Hospital, five Mediclinics and nineteen Health Care Centre, and acquire a new a mobile caravan;
• Implementation of strong integrated Health Management Information Systems by introducing e-health so that data on the medical history of patients are available to all hospitals across the country in real time. This will save time for patients, give them more flexibility to seek treatment in health facilities and also facilitate the treatment of patients;
• Improving the distribution and mix of human resources by the recruitment of 538 medical and non-medical personnel. This includes some 40 more Nursing Officers to be trained in community health care nursing to reinforce the on-going primary health care services (for example, the strengthening of the vaccination programme); and
• Prevent NCDs by investing in Sports and Physical Activity.  The Prime Minister emphasized that it is alarming that only around 14% of the population aged 15 years and older meet the levels of physical activity recommended by the WHO. The Government is encouraging the population to become more active by allocating resources for the development of Team Mauritius for elite sports, setting up of Coaching Mauritius for workforce development and establishment of Sports Facilities Mauritius to optimize the use of sports infrastructure.

The above budgetary measures for year 2019-2020 are in line with the policy recommendations from the “National assessment health system challenges and opportunities for better noncommunicable disease outcomes in Mauritius” published early 2019 by the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life with the support of World Health Organization.