India's per capita health spending highest in nearly 15 years
- In Reports
- 12:16 PM, Apr 26, 2023
- Myind Staff
According to the Union health ministry’s National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates published on Tuesday, the real per capita health spending in India was the highest in 2019-20 since 2004-05, the earliest year for which this data is available, with the government’s share increasing sharply.
The fiscal year right before the pandemic saw consumers' out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending reach a three-year high, even though the government's increased health spending accounted for more than half of this gain. In 2019–20, the government and household contributions to health spending were 41.4% and 47.1%, respectively, the highest and lowest contributions by the two over the course of the NHA dataset.
“One of the significant parts is that the percentage of health expenditure incurred by the government has increased significantly. In per capita terms, in 2014-15, the government used to spend almost ₹1100 per capita and in 2019-20, it has increased to ₹2014, which is almost double. In terms of percentages, it was 1.13% of GDP earlier and has become 1.35% of GDP in 2019-20,” said Union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan.
According to NHA estimates, India's overall health expenditure in 2019–20 was ₹655800 crores. This represents a 9.96% increase over 2018–19, which is the fastest growth since 2013–14. NHA estimates were also available for 2004–05, but they have only been accessible regularly since 2013–14.
It's true that trends in the total cost of medical care when calculated using current pricing can be deceptive. This is due to the fact that an increase in population alone can cause a country's overall health costs to rise. Population and inflation are both taken into account when calculating per capita spending in constant prices.
This shows that India’s per capita health spending was ₹3,516 in 2019-20 at 2011-12 prices. This is 6.1% more than in 2018-19 and the highest India has spent on health in any year for which NHA estimates are available. Before 2019-20, India spent the most in 2016-17, i.e. ₹3,503.
However, the government spending more on health accounted for more than half of the ₹202 growth in health spending in 2019–20. The combined per capita health spending of the state governments and the union government increased by ₹50 and ₹59 respectively to reach ₹935. The state government’s expenditure was the highest in the NHA series, and the Union government's expenditure was second only to that in 2017–18 (when it was ₹555).
On the other side, household OOP spending climbed by ₹58 to ₹1,656 per capita. Although it is the greatest in the three years after 2017–18, this is the third-lowest value in the NHA series from 2013–14. The development since 2017–18 is crucial because, in that year, per capita, OOP spending fell sharply. This was probably caused by the accessibility of fresh survey data. According to HT's report from the previous year, starting in 2017–18, NHA used the National Statistical Office's (NSO) 2017–18 health consumption survey to estimate OOP costs.
While real per capita OOP spending in 2019-20 was the highest since 2017-18, its contribution to India’s total health spending has decreased from 48.2% in 2018-19 to 47.1% in 2019-20, the lowest in the NHA series. Total government contribution to health spending, on the other hand, has increased to its highest level of 41.4%.
Image source: PTI
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