Health expenditure now at 1.84% of GDP, moving steadily to 2.5%: Nadda

New Delhi: Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Wednesday said the government's expenditure on healthcare has reached 1.84 per cent of GDP and is steadily moving towards the target of 2.5 per cent.

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 1 lakh crore.

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

The National Health Policy 2017 has prescribed increasing government health Expenditure (GHE) as a share of GDP to 2.5 per cent 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.

He said the government has implemented National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) in some Ayushman Arogya Mandir.

About "369 crore people have visited Ayushman Arogya Mandir. We have decided to test the hypertension, blood pressure and diabetes of every person at the age of 30. We will do oral check-ups, dental health, and mental health as well. Hypertension screening has reached 100 crore, diabetes increasing to 88.5 crore," Nadda noted.

He said Ayushman Arogya Mandir is carrying out screening of oral cancer, breast cancer of women and cervix cancer of every person at the age of 30 years.

The minister said that oral screening of around 30 crore people has been done and 1.63 lakh people have been detected with oral cancer whose treatment has also started.

"14.60 crore have been screened for breast cancer out of which 57,000 breast cancer patients have been detected and their treatment has started. Similarly, 9.04 crore people have been screened for cervix cancer, out of which 97,000 cervix cancer patients have been detected and their treatment has started," Nadda said.

He said that Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program (PMNDP) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) have reduced out-of-pocket expenditures for poor people.

"In 2014-15, out-of-pocket expenditure was 62.6 per cent and in 2021-22, 62.6 per cent has been reduced to 39.4 per cent out of pocket expenditure," the minister said.

Nadda said that poor people have been able to save Rs 16,000 crore in out-of-pocket expenditure under the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program.

"Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program is covering 748 districts in 36 states and all Union territories and 26.49 lakh patients have been covered," Nadda said.

In TB (tuberculosis), the reduction has been 17.7 per cent, more than double compared to the global reduction rate of 8.3 per cent, he added.

The minister said that the 100-day TB elimination programme will have surprising results.

He also 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 and 75 new medical colleges.

Opening 22 AIIMS in 10 years also leads to vacancies and it is the government's responsibility to fill those vacancies, he added.