According to the National Health Accounts Estimates 2019-20 released on Tuesday, there has been a consistent decline in the share of out-of-pocket expenditure in total health expenditure from 62.6 per cent in 2014-15 to 47.1 per cent in 2019-20 in the country.
Additionally, in the General Government Expenditure, the share of health sector spending has steadily increased from 3.94 per cent to 5.02 per cent between 2014-15 and 2019-20, thus suggesting that healthcare has been the priority for public investment in the country.
During the same period, the government health expenditure (GHE) as a share of the total health expenditure (THE) increased from 29 per cent to 41.4 per cent, the data stated.
Overall, the government health expenditure as per cent of GDP has increased over the years from 1.13 per cent in 2014-15 to 1.35 per cent in 2019-20. For the same period, GHE as per cent of general government expenditure (GGE) has increased from 3.94 per cent to 5.02 per cent.
In per capita terms, GHE has doubled from Rs 1,108 to Rs 2,014 between 2014-15 to 2019-20. The government spending on health between 2018-19 and 2019-20 increased by 12 per cent, more than double the growth rate between 2017-18 and 2018-19 which was at 5 per cent, said Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog as he launched the National Health Accounts (NHA) Estimates for India for 2019-20.