Per capita out-of-pocket health expenditure sees decline: report

What is the News?

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released the National Health Accounts Report for 2017-18.

About the National Health Accounts Report

Produced by: National Health Systems Resource Centre (It is designated as National Health Accounts Technical Secretariat in 2014 by the Health Ministry). 

Source of Data: The report was prepared by using an accounting framework based on the internationally accepted System of Health Accounts 2011 provided by the World Health Organization.

What are the key findings of the report?

Government Expenditure on Healthcare

The share of government expenditure on healthcare has increased to 1.35% of GDP in 2017-18 from 1.15% in 2013-14.

In per capita terms, the Government health expenditure has increased from ₹1,042 to ₹1,753 between 2013-14 to 2017-18.

Out of Pocket Expenditure on Health

Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a share of total health expenditure has come down to 48.8% in 2017-18 from 64.2% in 2013-14. 

The per capita out-of-pocket expenditure has declined to Rs 2,097 in 2017-18 from 2,336 in 2013-14.

The government has attributed the fall in out-of-pocket expenditure to the increased utilisation of government health facilities and reduction in the cost of services at these facilities. 

Foreign Aid to Health

The share of foreign aid for health declined to 0.5% from 0.6% the previous year, which the government attributes to India’s economic self-reliance.

Primary Health Care

The share of primary healthcare in the current government expenditure has increased to 54.7% in 2017-18 from 51.1% in 2013.14.

The primary and secondary health care together accounted for 86% of the government health expenditure in 2017-18 up from 75% in 2016-17. 

In contrast, the share of primary and secondary care in the private sector has declined from 84% to 74%, while that of tertiary care increased.

Source: This post is based on the article “Per capita out-of-pocket health expenditure sees decline: report” published in The Hindu on 30th November 2021.