Karnataka's out of pocket expenditure on health lowest among 21 large states; India’s OOPE drops below 40%

New Delhi: Karnataka’s out-of-pocket expenditure on health is the lowest among 21 large states while Uttar Pradesh is the highest, says the Union Health Ministry in its latest data released on Wednesday while putting India’s out-of-pocket health expenditure below 40 per cent of total health expenses for the first time.

Karnataka’s out of pocket expenditure on health in 2021-22 was 25.4 per cent of the state’s total health expenditure as against Uttar Pradesh’s 63.7 per cent.

These are expenditures directly made by households at the point of receiving health care. It indicates the extent of financial protection available for households towards healthcare payments.

Other states with high out of pocket expenditures are Kerala (59.1), West Bengal (58.3), Punjab (57.2) and Andhra Pradesh (52). The states with low out-of-pocket expenditures are Jammu and Kashmir (25.9), Uttarakhand (26.9), Assam (27.6) and Chhattisgarh (29.2).

The two National Health Account reports record a drop in such expenditure to 39.4 per cent in 2021-22 as against 64.2 per cent in 2013-14.

“The decline in out-of-pocket expenditure out of total health expenditure reflects a very positive indicator. More than Rs one lakh crore savings accrued from the Ayushman Bharat and this has had a positive impact,” V K Paul, Member Health NITI Ayog said after releasing the two reports for 2020-21 and 2021-22.

On the other hand, the government expenditure on health witnessed a rise from 28.6 per cent to 48 per cent in those eight years. For instance, the free dialysis scheme, launched in 2015-16, benefited 25 lakh people.

The NHA reports pertain to the pandemic period when the government expenses on health were all time high to improve the infrastructure and buy vaccines.

"As the proportion of GDP, the government health expenditure has risen from 1.15 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.84 per cent, which is an increase of 60 per cent," said Paul.

Private health insurance companies are yet to make a major presence in the Indian healthcare market, according to the data.

Only 7.4 per cent of the total health expenditure comes from private health insurance. While this is an increase from 3.4 per cent in 2013-14, the NHA reports clearly show that the majority of Indians are still out of private health insurance coverage.