{"id":239828,"date":"2023-04-27T20:02:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=239828"},"modified":"2023-05-02T17:03:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T11:33:11","slug":"healthy-reduction-out-of-pocket-health-spends-must-fall-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/healthy-reduction-out-of-pocket-health-spends-must-fall-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy reduction – Out-of-pocket health spends must fall faster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S<\/strong>ource<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cHealthy reduction – Out-of-pocket health spends must fall faster\u201d <\/b>published in\u00a0the\u00a0Business Standard <\/b>on 27<\/strong>th April 2023<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector\/Services relating to Health.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About National Health Accounts report and its findings.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The latest data from the National Health Accounts for 2019-20 suggests that India is witnessing a steady fall in the average out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), or the amount patients spend themselves directly at the point of treatment.<\/p>\n

What are the key findings of the National Health Accounts report?<\/h2>\n

-From a high of 62.6% in 2014-15, OOPE fell to 47%\u00a0in 2019-20.<\/p>\n

-In the same period, government health expenditure rose from 29 to 41% of total healthcare expenditure.<\/p>\n

-Private health insurance appears to have grown in this period, from 3.7 to 7%. Over a five-year timeline, this is a development in the right direction.<\/p>\n

What are the key observations of the National Health Accounts report findings?<\/h2>\n

There is a strong correlation between rising government health expenditure and falling OOPE. For example, the years between 2016-17 and 2017-18 saw an almost 10 percentage point drop in OOPE, in tune with an 8 percentage point rise in government expenditure.<\/p>\n

Although the Ayushman Bharat scheme was introduced in the 2018-19 fiscal year, its impact on OOPE is yet to be determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Out-of-pocket health spending still high, despite hike in government expenditure<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What are the concerns associated with the National Health Accounts report?<\/h2>\n

a)<\/strong> The report figures pertain to the year before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. So, it is reasonable to assume that much has changed in the three years, given the nature of the virus, b)<\/strong> Although the OOPE has reduced, Indians still spend far too much from their own pockets to pay health expenses. For example, OOPEs as a percentage of total healthcare expenditure for countries such as Indonesia, China and Malaysia were around mid-30s, c)<\/strong> Central and state governments still underspend on healthcare. Government health expenditure as a percentage of GDP between 2014-15 and 2019-20 rose only marginally, from 1.13% to 1.35%.\u00a0 Bur the per capita spend nearly doubled from ~1,108 to ~2,014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Healthcare in India has made great progress, but challenges remain<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What should be done to reduce OOPEs further?<\/h2>\n

The aim is to raise health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, and the Central government has stayed on this path despite fiscal constraints. As of now, state spending is just 4-5% of their total budget. An increase in allocation by states would help in making an appreciable difference to OOPEs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: <\/strong>[Yojana March 2023 Summary] India\u2019s post-pandemic healthcare system \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/strong><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cHealthy reduction – Out-of-pocket health spends must fall faster\u201d published in\u00a0the\u00a0Business Standard on 27th April 2023. Syllabus: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector\/Services relating to Health. Relevance: About National Health Accounts report and its findings. News: The latest data from the National Health Accounts… Continue reading Healthy reduction – Out-of-pocket health spends must fall faster<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,212,11537],"class_list":["post-239828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-national-health-account","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704950360},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}