National Health Accounts Report estimates : 2017-2018

Context

Recently, National Health Accounts (NHA) reported that the government has increased the expenditure on health, making the decline of Out-Of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) to 48.8% in 2017-18 from 64.2% in 2013-14.

About National Health Accounts (NHA)

• The NHA estimates are prepared by using an accounting framework based on the internationally accepted System of Health Accounts 2011, provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
• It is released by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• It describes health expenditures and flow of funds in the country’s health system over a financial year of India.
• It answers important policy questions such as what are the sources of healthcare expenditures, who manages these, who provides health care services, and which services are utilized.
• It is a practice to describe the health expenditure estimates according to a global standard framework, System of Health Accounts 2011 (SHA 2011), to facilitate comparison of estimates across countries.

Key-Highlights of NHA estimates (2017-18)

• Increase in government share of expenditure: There has been an increase in the share of government health expenditure in the total GDP from 1.15% in 2013-14 to 1.35% in 2017-18.
• In 2017-18, the share of government expenditure was 40.8%, which is much higher than 28.6% in 2013-14.
• In per capita terms, the government health expenditure has increased from Rs 1042 to Rs.1753 between 2013-14 to 2017-18.
• Primary and secondary care accounts for more than 80% of the current Government health expenditure.
• The share of social security expenditure on health, which includes the social health insurance program, Government financed health insurance schemes, and medical reimbursements made to Government employees, has increased.
• The foreign aid for health has come down to 0.5%, showcasing India’s economic self-reliance.
• The government’s efforts to improve public health care are evident with out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a share of total health expenditure coming down to 48.8% in 2017-18 from 64.2% in 2013-14.