Govt’s FY19 health spending dropped: what the accounts show

Source: The post is based on the article “Govt’s FY19 health spending dropped: what the accounts show” published in Indian Express on 15th September 2022.

What is the News?

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has released findings of the National Health Accounts (NHA) Estimates for India for 2018-19.

What are National Health Accounts(NHA) Estimates 2018-19?

National Health Account(NHA) estimates 2018-19 is the sixth consecutive NHA estimates report prepared by NHSRC.

— Note: NHSRC has been designated as National Health Accounts Technical Secretariat(NHATS) by the Union Health Ministry in 2014.

Purpose: It describes the country’s total expenditure on healthcare — whether by the government, the private sector, individuals, or NGOs — and the flow of these funds. 

What are the key findings of NHA Estimates 2018-19?

Health expenditure: Government spending as a percentage of total health expenditure increased by more than 11 percentage points over the previous five years, from 23.2% in 2013-14 to 34.5% in 2018-19.

– However, government spending as a proportion of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) went down to 1.28% from 1.35% in the previous year’s(2017-18) report.

– The total health spending — which includes spending by both government and non-government agents — declined from 3.9% of the GDP to 3.2% in the five years up to 2018-19.

Out of Pocket expenditure: The Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) as percentage of total health expenditure has declined substantially by 16% points, from 64.2% to 48.2%.

– This fall is good because India’s out-of-pocket expenditure continues to be high in comparison to other countries in the region.

– However, still, out-of-pocket expenditure for the year 2018-19 stood at 2.87 lakh crore which was equivalent to 1.52% of the GDP for the year. This means people spent much more than the government, with all its health schemes and new hospitals, spent on healthcare that year.

Current Health expenditure: The current health expenditure — not accounting for any expenses that can be utilized over a few years — stood at Rs 5.4 lakh crore which was 90.6% of the total health expenditure.

— The Centre’s share in the current health expenditure stood at 11.71%, state governments accounted for 19.63%, local bodies 1.01% and households (including insurance contributions) 60.11% of the current health expenditure.