Context:

• Jammu and Kashmir and Assam spent the largest fraction of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) on public health, according to National Health Accounts Estimates 2015-16, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told Parliament.

Facts:

• The share of Government Health Expenditure (GHE) in the GSDPs of J&K and Assam were 1.7% and 1.5% respectively, the data show. Haryana and Maharashtra are towards the lower end of the table, having spent 0.6% and 0.7% of their GSDPs on health respectively.
• The National Health Policy of 2017 envisaged “increasing state sector health spending to more than 8% of their budget by 2020”.

• The NITI Aayog’s ‘Three Year Action Agenda, 2017-18 to 2019-20’ calls for a significant increase in government expenditure on public health “to cover screenings for the entire population, active case detection, and disease surveillance from the private sector”. It also envisions the mainstreaming of “evidence-based preventive health interventions” such as breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding during up to the age of two through adequate budgetary allocations and national level action plans.

Source:IE