Union Health ministry revises fund requirements to Rs 6.04 lakh Crore from Rs 4.99 lakh Crore

Dr Harsh Vardhan described his vision for the improvement of India's health sector and appreciated the Commission's decision to reprioritize the sector.

The Ministry in a detailed presentation to the Commission highlighted the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 targets which include Increase public health expenditure to 2.5per cent of GDP, in a progressive manner, by 2025, Primary Health Expenditure to be 2/3rd of the total health expenditure

and Increase State sector health spending to more than 8 per cent of their budget by 2020.

The Ministry pointed out that presently 35 per cent of the public health expenditure is done by the Central Government and 65 per cent by the State Governments.

The pandemic has established the importance of the need to strengthen the public health sector, surveillance and public health management, preventive and promotive health care with special focus on urban health.

The Ministry also felt that there was a need to increase the allocation of MoHFW on year to year basis.

The Ministry has thus asked for additional resources to the tune of 0.4 percent of GDP per annum to the States which they felt would lead to significant progress towards achievement of the National Health Policy target.

The Commission agreed that there was a need to increase public sector health outlay and also to develop a professional cadre of health workers.

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