Budget 2024: Health spending remains unchanged at 0.3% over a decade

Health Budget has remained unchanged

Health spending has remained unchanged over the last decade, with the central government spending a mere 0.3 percent of the GDP on health, a Moneycontrol analysis shows.

Budget data indicates that health spending rose to 0.41 percent of the GDP during the pandemic but has since declined to 0.28 percent.

Capital spending has also remained unchanged, averaging 3.7 percent between FY22 and FY24.

The share of the National Health Mission, the flagship programme of the ministry, has also reduced over this period.

The share of NHM in total health spending has reduced from over 60 percent prior to the pandemic to 54.6 percent, its lowest level in a decade in FY24.

The National Health Mission is a centrally sponsored scheme, where the implementation is led by states, with financial outlay being shared by both the centre and the states.

Moneycontrol had earlier reported that the share of centrally sponsored schemes has been declining, while the share of central sector schemes, which are implemented and funded by the centre, has been rising.

Ayushman Rising

While NHM spending has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 5.2 percent between FY19 and FY24, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana of NHM has registered a 27.7 percent growth during this period.

PM-JAY accounted for Rs 6,800 crore spending in FY24 compared with Rs 2,000 crore in FY19.

The scheme provides cashless and paperless benefits, covering Rs 5 lakh per annum per family on a floater basis in empanelled hospitals.

The PM-JAY dashboard shows that the scheme has led to 68.6 million hospital admissions, with 1.9 million admissions in the previous 30 days.

The Southern states have taken most advantage of the scheme. Tamil Nadu has witnessed 9 million admissions, the highest among states, followed by Karnataka at 6.6 million.

In the interim budget, the government had allocated Rs 90,658 crore towards health. Capex is set to rise to 4.8 percent compared with 3.4 percent in the previous year.