Government expenditure on health, both State and Central, was 2.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, as per the Economic Survey 2022-2023. This is a slight dip from 2.2 per cent of the GDP in the financial year 2021-2022 and an increase from 1.3 per cent of the GDP in 2015-2016. This “highlights the rising importance of public healthcare and social security in ensuring universal health coverage,” the report noted.
In absolute figures, the increase translated into Rs 1,75,272 crore in 2015-2016 to Rs 5,48,855 crore in 2022-2023. These figures are straying away from the target of increasing the total public expenditure on health to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025 as mandated by the National Health Policy (NHP) of 2017.
The government's share in the total health expenditure has increased from 28.6 per cent in financial year 2014 to 40.6 per cent in 2019 with a significant decline in out-of-pocket expenditure, according to the Survey. It also said that the government is focusing on primary healthcare expenditure which has increased from 51.1 percent in FY-14 to 55.2 per cent in FY-19.
This not only ensures quality services at the grassroots but also reduces the chances of ailments requiring secondary or tertiary healthcare services, the survey stated.
"The share of government health expenditure in total health expenditure has increased from 28.6 per cent in the financial year 2014 to 40.6 per cent in 2019, with a concomitant decline in out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of total health expenditure from 64.2 per cent in 2014 to 48.2 per cent in 2019," the survey stated.