Public spending on health overtakes out-of-pocket expenditure in India: Report

In a first, public spending on health has overtaken the out-of-pocket expenditure in India, according to the Union Health Ministry’s National Health Account (NHA) estimates for India 2020-21 and 2021-22.

The report, recently released by NITI Aayog, showed that the share of out-of-pocket expenditure out of total health expenditure declined to 39.4 per cent in 2021-22. It was 64.2 per cent in 2013-14.

At the same time, the share of Government Health Expenditure (GHE) in the overall GDP of the country surged significantly to 48 per cent in 2021-22, from 28.6 per cent in 2013-14.

The historic shift in health policy is driven by increased public spending. It will ease the financial burden on families, the report said.

This will also "ensure financial protection and boost universal health coverage for citizens", it added.

"For the first time in Indian History public spending on #Health overtakes out-of-pocket expenditure proves PM @narendramodi govt commitment to Healthier Citizens per capita govt expenditure on #healthcare tripled from 2013-14 to 2021-22," said Prof Shamika Ravi, Member Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, in a post on X.

Further, in terms of per capita, GHE tripled -- from Rs. 1,108 to Rs. 3,169 between 2014-15 to 2021-22.

"The government spending on health between 2019-20 and 2020-21 increased by 16.6 per cent, while between 2020-21 and 2021-22, it grew by an unprecedented rate of 37 per cent," the estimates showed. As per the estimates, Total Health Expenditure increased to 8.7 per cent in 2021-22 from 5.7 per cent in 2014-15.

The report also noted a marked increase in Social Security Expenditure (SSE) on healthcare -- which includes government-funded health insurance, medical reimbursement to government employees, and social health insurance programmes.