New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) Out-of-pocket health expenditure has seen a significant decline in recent years. It fell to 39.4 per cent in 2021-22 from 64.2 per cent in 2013-14. This information was given by Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
Releasing the National Health Account (NHA) estimates of the Union Health Ministry for 2020-21 and 2021-22, Paul said that the reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure on health is a positive sign.
He further said, “Ayushman Bharat PMJAY has resulted in savings of more than Rs 1 lakh crore and this has had a positive impact on recent NHA estimates.”
Apart from this, he said that 25 lakh people have benefited from schemes like free dialysis launched in 2015-16.
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra termed the reduction in out-of-pocket health expenditure as a positive sign and said that during this period the health expenditure incurred by the government has also increased significantly.
Chandra further said that this shows that the government is emphasizing on health services. NHA’s estimates for 2021-22 show that the government’s expenditure on health services has increased.
According to the data, government expenditure on health (GHE) stood at 1.84 per cent of GDP in 2021-22, as against 1.13 per cent in 2014-15.
Apart from this, its share in general government expenditure (GGE) has increased to 6.12 percent in 2021-22, which was 3.94 percent in 2014-15.
The data showed that government expenditure on health increased by 16.6 percent between 2019-20 and 2020-21 and by 37 percent between 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The share of GHE in the total health expenditure in the country has increased to 48 percent in 2021-22, which was 29 percent in 2014-15. During this period, the share of out-of-pocket expenditure has come down from 62.6 percent to 39.4 percent.
–IANS
ABS/
