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Context

• Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a share of total health expenditure and foreign aid for health has both come down as per the findings of the National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates for India for 2017-18.

Findings

• As a share of total health expenditure, the OOPE has come down to 48.8% in 2017-18 from 64.2% in 2013-14.
• One of the factors attributing to this decline is the increase in utilisation and reduction in cost of services in Government health facilities.
• If we compare NHA 2014-15 and 2017-18, there has been a decline in OOPE for Government hospitals to the tune of 50%.

Government effort

• The NHA estimates for 2017-18 clearly showed that there had been an increase in the share of Government health expenditure in the total GDP of the country.
• It has increased from 1.15% in 2013-14 to 1.35% in 2017-18.
• Additionally, the share of Government Health Expenditure in total health expenditure has also increased over time.
• In 2017-18, the share of Government expenditure was 40.8%, which is much higher than 28.6% in 2013-14.
• The report further indicates that in per capita terms, the Government health expenditure has increased from Rs 1,042 to Rs 1,753 between 2013-14 to 2017-18.

The Report

• This is the fifth consecutive NHA report produced by National Health Systems Resource Centre, designated as National Health Accounts Technical Secretariat in 2014 by the Health Ministry.
• The NHA estimates are prepared by using an accounting framework based on internationally accepted System of Health Accounts 2011, provided by the World Health Organization.

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