Little help from the governments – both state and the Centre – is resulting in high out-of-pocketexpenditureon healthcare for residents ofPunjaband Haryana.
The situation is worse in Punjab where the out-of-pocket-expenditures, which refers to spent directly by households for receiving healthcare, is higher than the national Average. At the same time, the governmenthealthexpenditure (GHE), which constitutes spending under all schemes funded and managed by the Centre, state, and local governments, was lower than the All-India average.
These facts have come to the fore in the latest report of theNational Health Accounts Estimatesfor India 2018-19. The out-of-pocket expenditure in Punjab was 65.5%, which accounted for 1.8% of the gross domestic state product (GSDP), against the national average of 48.2%.
The report states that in Punjab, the total health expenditure was Rs 14,047 crore, which was 2.7% of the GSDP with per capita spending of Rs 4,682. Out of Rs 14,047 crore, out-of-pocket-expenditure was Rs 9,196 crore. In the previous year, the per capita expenditure was Rs 1,086, which was 25.7% of the total health expenditure, while the out-of-pocket expenditure was Rs 2,935 accounting for 69.4% of the total expenditure.
In Haryana, total health expenditure was Rs 13,463 crore, 1.9% of the GSDP, of which Rs 6,359 crore – 47.23% of total expenditure – was spent by people from their own pocket.