Question : Public Health Spending

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

(a) whether public health spending in many States across the country is very less and these States are spending 1.4 per cent of the GDP at current national average as per the recent NITI Aayog report, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether NITI Aayog has also suggested that all States also need to raise public health spending to at least 8 per cent of their GDP to met the National Health Policy 2017 goal, if so, the details thereof along with the action taken or proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard;

(c) whether NITI Aayog has submitted their recommendation to the Government to increase the Central allocation of health budget for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and various other States, if so, the details thereof; and

(d) whether the Government is considering to accept the NITI Aayog recommendation, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons for the same?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND
FAMILY WELFARE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a): Public health expenditure as a percentage of Gross State Domestic Product in select States, as per National Health Accounts Estimates 2015-16, may be seen at Annexure.

(b): The National Health Policy, 2017 envisages increasing State sector health spending to more than 8% of their budget by 2020.

(c): The document ‘Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20’ of NITI Aayog states that “Government expenditure on public health should be increased significantly to cover screenings for the entire population, active case detection and disease surveillance including from the private sector. Additionally, evidence-based preventive health interventions like breastfeeding as well as infant and young child feeding during the first two years of life should be mainstreamed through adequate budgetary allocations and plans of action at the national-level”.

(d) Under the National Health Mission (NHM), the annual resource envelope of a State is decided based on its population, and a weightage factor derived from the State’s area, health lag and socio-economic backwardness of the State. The Mission Steering Group of NHM has approved the weightages for financial allocation of funds to States. For UP and Bihar, the weightage is 1.3. For the hilly State of Uttarakhand, it is 3.