NATIONAL HEALTH ACCOUNT ESTIMATES - POLITY
News: What
the latest National Health Account figures say about India’s healthcare sector
What's in the news?
● There
has been a consistent increase in
government spending, coupled with declining out-of-pocket expenditure by
people on their healthcare needs, shows the National Health Account Estimates
2019-20, which was released earlier this week.
Key takeaways:
● The
government spent 1.35 percent of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product (total value of the final goods and
services in a year indicative of a country’s economy) on healthcare during the
year, bouncing back from a slight drop seen in 2018-19 as per the report.
National Health Account Estimates:
● The
health account estimates describe the country’s total expenditure on healthcare
– whether by the government, private sector, NGOs, or individuals – and the
flow of these funds.
Main Findings of the Report:
1. Increasing government spending:
● The
government spending on healthcare has been on the rise.
● The
money spent by the government on healthcare as a percentage of GDP has
increased from 1.13 percent in FY 2015 to 1.35 percent in FY 2020.
● The
per capita health spend of the
government in this period has increased
from Rs 1,108 to Rs 2,014.
● The
government’s share in the total money spent on healthcare in the country went
up by a 12.4 percentage point between FY 2015 and FY 2020, increasing from 29
percent to 41.4 percent.
● However,
India is in 164th place out of 184
countries in terms of government health spending.
2. Reducing out-of-pocket expenditure:
● Money
spent by people from their own pocket on healthcare has been going down to 47.1% from 62.6% due to increasing
government's spending.
3. Increasing spending on primary sectors:
● A
major chunk of the government’s health spend was in the primary sector.
● Out
of the total spending by the government on healthcare in FY 2020, 55.9 percent went to primary care, 29.6
percent went to secondary care, and 6.4 percent went to tertiary care.
4. Increasing social security expenditure:
● There
has been a consistent increase in social security expenditure by the
government, which increased from 5.7 percent of the total spending on health in
FY 2015 to 9.3 percent in FY 2020.
5. Increase in spending on insurance:
● Along
with an increase in government spending, the report shows that there has been
an increase in spending on privately purchased health insurance as well.
● Privately
purchased health insurance increased to 7.72
percent in FY 2020 from 3.9% in FY 2015.