Health ministry's outlay up 10% to Rs 99,858.56 crore for FY26

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

In her Budget for 2025-26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 99,858.56 crore to the health ministry, an increase of almost 10 percent from the estimates of the current financial year.

For fiscal 2025, the ministry's initial outlay at stood Rs 90,958.63 crore, rising 12.96 percent compared to the revised estimate of Rs 80,517.62 crore for 2023-24.

Out of the total allocation, Rs 95,957.87 crore has been set aside for the department of health and family welfare and Rs 3,900.69 crore to the department of health research.

Boosting expenditure on health is vital as the Centre's spending on the sector has largely remained unchanged over the past decade.

The government spends a mere 0.3 percent of the GDP on health. While it rose to 0.41 percent during the coronavirus pandemic, it has since declined to 0.28 percent.

Experts have been batting for an increase in healthcare spending to at least 2 percent of the GDP.