Government Spending 1.84% Of GDP On Healthcare, Says Nadda

Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Wednesday said the government's expenditure on healthcare has reached 1.84% of GDP and is steadily moving towards the target of 2.5%.

In his reply to a discussion on the working of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Nadda said in 2013-14, the allocation of funds for healthcare was around Rs 38,000 crore and at present, it has reached Rs 99,000 crore or assume it to be Rs 1 lakh crore.

"In 2013-14, the government health expenditure, which includes state and the Centre, was 1.15%, and when the policy was enunciated, it was 1.35%, and now, it is 1.84% of GDP, and we are going very steadily towards 2.5%," Nadda said.

The National Health Policy 2017 has prescribed increasing government health Expenditure as a share of GDP to 2.5% by 2025.

The minister said that around 1.75 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs are functional around the country as the first contact point of the patient with the health institution.

The minister said the government has implemented National Quality Assurance Standards in some Ayushman Arogya Mandir.

He said that under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the government has made an attempt to address regional imbalance and therefore, augmented affordable tertiary healthcare by opening 22 AIIMS.