'Govt's health expenditure share in GDP rises from 1.15% to 1.35%'

New Delhi: The share of the government's health expenditure in the total GDP of the country has increased from 1.15 per cent (2013-14) to 1.35 per cent (2017-18), according to the National Health Accounts Estimates for India released on Monday.

The report states that per capita out-of-pocket expenditure has declined from Rs 2,336 to Rs 2,097 from 2013-14 to 2017-18. The share of the government's health expenditure in the total health expenditure has increased to 40.8 per cent (2017-18) from 28.6 per cent (2013-14), the NHA report for 2017-18 said.

This is the fifth consecutive NHA report produced by the National Health Systems Resource Centre, designated as the National Health Accounts Technical Secretariat in 2014 by the Union Health Ministry.

The NHA estimates are prepared by using an accounting framework based on internationally accepted System of Health Accounts 2011, provided by the World Health Organisation.

The 2017-18 NHA estimates not only show the government's expenditure on health exhibiting an increasing trend but also growing trust in the public health care system, the health ministry said.

With the present estimate of NHA 2017-18, India has a continuous time series on NHA estimates for both government and private sources for five years since 2013-14.

These estimates are not only comparable internationally, but also enable the policy makers to monitor progress towards universal health coverage as envisaged in the National Health Policy, 2017, the ministry stated. In a tweet, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, "Creating A Healthy India: (Narendra Modi) Modi government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure top quality and affordable healthcare for all citizens: Increase in share of Government health expenditure; Decline in Per Capita Out-of-Pocket

expenditure."

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who released the findings, emphasised the NHA estimates for 2017-18 clearly show that there has been an increase in the share of the government's health expenditure in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. "It has increased from 1.15 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18. Additionally, the share of the government's health expenditure in the total health expenditure has also increased overtime. In 2017-18, the share of the government's expenditure was 40.8 per cent, which is much higher than 28.6 per cent in 2013-14,"

he stated.

The findings also show that the government's health expenditure as a share of the total government expenditure has increased from 3.78 per cent to 5.12 per cent between 2013-14 and 2017-18, clearly indicating the government's priority for the health sector in

the country.