Govt Health Spending as Percentage of GDP Falls Under 1.3%
Representational use only.Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald
New National Health Accounts data shows that government expenditure as a percentage of GDP on health, which increased from 2004-05 to 2017-18, has fallen to under 1.3% for the first time in 2018-19.
The total expenditure on health has also "declined over these 15 years from 4.3% to 3.2% of GDP." At the same time, "the expenditure by people on healthcare from their own pockets came down from almost 70% of total health expenditure in 2004-05 to 48% by 2018-19."
Government health expenditure has increased from 22.5% to 40.6% in this period. Most of this expenditure is done by state governments since health is a state subject.
Himachal Pradesh emerged as the state with the highest proportion of GSDP on health (1.7%) and the highest government spending per capita on health (Rs 3,604). The data shows Uttar Pradesh as the state with the highest out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of GDP (3.5%).
The data shows that Kerala is the state with the highest spending per capita (Rs 9,871), with most being accounted for in out-of-pocket spending. Bihar is the state with the least spending per capita on health (Rs 1,517).
The government's out-of-pocket expenditure per capita was Rs 2,155, whereas spending on health per person was Rs 1,815. Despite an increase in the overall government spending, health expenditure as a percentage of the GDP decreased from 1.3 in 2017-18 to 1.2% in 2018-19. There has also been a considerable increase in private health insurance expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure, from 1.6% in 2004-05 to 6.6% by 2018-19.
Around 17% of current health expenditure was spent on government hospitals for healthcare purposes. At the same time, the similar figure for private hospitals is 28.7%. A major part (33.8%) of current health expenditure was spent on pharmaceuticals, such as counter medicines, prescription medicines, etc.
The expenditure on other types of medicine was around 4.2%. Around 9.4% was spent on preventive care, 34.6% on inpatient curative care, and 18.9% on outpatient curative care, respectively.
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