National Health Accounts

National Health Accounts

Subject : Health Sector

Context: Government spending as a proportion of total health expenditure in the country has been rising in recent years, even as the overall expenditure on health has declined as per National Health Account Estimates.

Concept:

• The National Health Accounts Estimates describe the country’s total expenditure on healthcare.

Key Findings

• According to the National Health Accounts Estimates 2018-19, the total health expenditure — the total money spent on healthcare by the government, people, private entities, and external funding — has fallen from 9% of the GDP to 3.2% in five years ending in 2018-19.
• The Union government’s healthcare spending dropped to 1.28 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018-19 from the previous year’s figure of 1.35 percent.
• Government spending on health schemes contributed 9.6 percent of the total health expenditure, as against 9 percent the previous year.
• Out-of-the-pocket expenditure was 48.2 percent, a small drop from 48.8 percent in 2017-18.
• India’s out-of-pocket expenditure still continues to be high when compared to other countries in the region (Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, etc.)as per the Global health expenditure database (66^th position out of 189 countries). However, it is comparatively low when compared to developed countries.
• Out-of-pocket expenses have now decreased substantially from the 62.6 percent seen during 2014-15.But, there is no on-ground explanation for the drastic drop in out-of-pocket expenditure.
• Other than government spending and people spending out-of-pocket, private health insurance accounted for 6.6 percent of the total health expenditure, against 5.8 percent the previous year.