Maharashtra urged to hike health spending to Rs 74 bn by 2018

The State Government has allocated a sum of Rs 2,296 crore to the health sector in 2015-16.

Maharashtra's health budget needs to be a little more ambitious to overcome the lack of public health and medical facilities and fill in skill gaps of huge vacancies in rural hospitals and other centres as well as PHCs, it said.

The state should also look at investing in healthcare IT, which is expected increase by CAGR of 13.4 per cent during 2015 to 2020, IIHMR said.

"According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) the average cost of hospitalisation in India has risen from Rs 8,851 to Rs 24,436. The average cost of hospitalisation in Maharashtra alone is Rs 20,475, of which 19.2 per cent people have been utilising the services of public hospitals and 80.8% of private hospitals," IIHMR-Delhi Dean Ashok K Agarwal said.

"According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the percentage distribution of public health expenditure in Maharashtra alone is 8.70 per cent, the highest after Uttar Pradesh," he said.