India spending Rs 1,418 per capita per year on health: Govt in RS

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 10

Days after the parliamentary standing committee on health expressed serious concerns over consistently low public expenditure on health, the Government acknowledged in Rajya Sabha that India was spending nominal Rs 1,418 per capita per year on health.

This compares poorly to the rest of the world with the per capita government spending on health pegged at nearly Rs four lakh in the US; Rs 2.65 lakh in the UK; and Rs 64,000 in the Russian federation.

The government said in the written reply on Tuesday that the per capita domestic general government health expenditure is USD 5,356 in the US; USD 3,631 in the UK; USD 885 in the Russian Federation; USD 4,737 in Germany; USD 3,852 in France and USD 2,678 in Italy.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, however, noted that per capita public government expenditure on health in India had “increased by 36.1 per cent between 2013 and 14 to 2016-2017.”

The per capita public spending on health nationally was Rs 1042 in 2013-2014.

The government also informed the house that out of pocket expenditure by households as a percentage of current health expenditure was 69.1 per cent in 2013-14 and 63.2 per cent in 2017, for which the latest data are available.

“It is evident that the out of pocket expenditure as a percent of the current health expenditure has declined 5.9 per percentage points from 2013-2014 to 1026-2017 implying financial protection to households for healthcare has improved over this period,” the Minister said.

Importantly, the share of primary healthcare is the highest in the out of pocket expenditure of households at 42.6 per cent followed by 40.8 per cent on secondary healthcare and 16.6 pc on tertiary healthcare.

The government said the impact of  Ayushman Bharat-PM Jan Aarogya Yojna which provides free hospital cover up to Rs 5 lakh to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families annually will reflect in subsequent national health statistics.

The government also said that the network of government run low cost generic medicine stores (Janaushadhi Kendras) had led to savings worth rs 3600 crore for beneficiaries during the current financial year.