National News

High Out-of-Pocket Health Spending in India

May 30 , 2026 13 hrs 0 min 39 0

The latest National Health Accounts (NHA) Estimates 2022-23 showed that people in India still spend a very high amount from their own pockets for healthcare.
Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) forms nearly 50% of the Current Health Expenditure (CHE) in India.
Government Health Expenditure (GHE) increased from 1.15% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013-14 to about 1.48% in 2022-23.
India’s public health spending is still below the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 5% of GDP and below the National Health Policy target of 2.5% of GDP.
Private hospitals accounted for the largest share of healthcare spending at 30.83%, while preventive healthcare spending was only 8.88% of CHE.
State governments contributed more than 63% of total government health spending, while private health insurance spending was higher than government-funded insurance schemes.