Parliament Question: Budget Allocation for the Health Sector

GOVERNMENTOFINDIA MINISTRYOFHEALTH& FAMILYWELFARE DEPARTMENTOFHEALTH& FAMILYWELFARE LOK SABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO. 4815 TO BE ANSWERED ON20.03.2026 BUDGETALLOCATION FORTHE HEALTHSECTOR 4815. SHRIANAND BHADAURIA: Will the Ministerof HEALTHAND FAMILYWELFAREbe pleased tostate: (a)the detailsof the totalUnion budget allocation for the healthsector during 2024-25, 2025- 26and2026-27, year-wise; (b) the details of actual utilisation of the allocated budget for the health sector in comparison to the total Union budget estimates during 2024-25, 2025-26 and2026-27 till date, year-wise; (c) the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to the health sector at the budget estimate stage and actually utilised during 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 till date, year-wise; (d) the details of budget allocation for health in G-8 and SAARC countries during the last three years, year-wise andcountry-wise; (e) whether the Government proposes to enhance the health budget of the country in view of the poor healthservices andinfrastructure inrural areas; (f) if so, the detailsthereof; and (g) if not,the reasons therefor? ANSWER THE MINISTER OFSTATE IN THE MINISTRYOFHEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRIPRATAPRAO JADHAV) (a) to (c): The details of total budget allocation for health sector, actual utilisation for the health sector in comparison to the total union budget estimates and the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to the health sector at the budget estimate stage and actuallyutilised during last three yearsare givenasunder: Ministry of Health& FamilyWelfare (Rs.incrore) Year TotalUnion TotalGDPof BEAllocation Actual %ofBE %ofActual Budget Indiaat (MoHFW)$ Expenditure Allocatio Expenditure Estimates* currentprices (MoHFW)$ nw.r.t w.r.tGDP GDP 2024-25 4820512.00 33068145^ 90958.63 90684.10 0.28 0.27 2025-26 5065345.00 35713886^ 99858.56 85492.76@ 0.28 0.24 2026-27 5347315.00 39300393* 106530.42 0 0.27 0.00 *As perBudget at a glance,Document of Ministry of Finance.URL: https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/ ^ As pere-SankhyikiPortal $As perStatementof Budget Estimates @Actual Expenditure till 13.03.2026 GDP Estimates with Base Year 2011-12, Source: GDP from Ministry of Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation (MoSPI), URLi.e.https://esankhyiki.mospi.gov.in/macroindicators?product=nas Total GDPfor2024-25 asperFinalRevisedEstimates (FRE),Total GDPfor2025-26 Second AdvanceEstimates (SRE). (d): As per the latest available National Health Accounts (NHA) 2021-22 estimates and WHO’s Global Health Expenditure Database, the Government Health Expenditure (GHE)/ Domestic General Government Health Expenditure (GGHED) as a share of GDP for India, G8 andSAARC countriesfor 2021are providedbelow: GHE/GGHED inUSDMillions CountryGroup/Countries 2019 2020 2021 G8 Canada 1,33,964 1,59,200 1,82,049 France 2,26,834 2,45,130 2,74,412 Germany 3,52,064 3,89,022 4,40,151 Italy 1,27,441 1,38,335 1,50,740 Japan 4,71,410 4,94,175 5,25,161 Russian Federation 58,287 87,764 89,449 United Kingdom 2,26,882 2,74,518 3,18,096 United States of America 18,51,767 22,50,817 22,78,628 SAARC Afghanistan 94 239 108 Bangladesh 1,262 1,329 1,610 Bhutan 65 81 61 Maldives 337 340 309 Nepal 378 514 651 Pakistan 2,754 3,054 3,810 SriLanka 1,544 1,818 2,003 India 38,560 42,720 58,736 Notes: GGHED values for G8 and SAARC countries in USD Millions are takenfrom GHED. For India,GHE valuesaretakenfromNHAreportsandconvertedtoUSDMillionsusingtheexchangerateprovidedinGHED. (e) to (g): As per National Health Accounts (NHA) estimates, the Government Health Expenditure (GHE) as a share of GDP has increased from 1.13% in 2014-15 to 1.84% in 2021-22. The share of GHE in Total Health Expenditure (THE) has increased from 29.0% in FY2014-15 to 48.0% inFY2021-22. Concurrent to thisincrease inGHE, the share of Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) in THE has declined from 62.6% to 39.4% during the same period.Thisdecliningshare of OOPE isindicativeof increasing accesstohealthservices. Further, the Ministryof HealthandFamilyWelfare(MoHFW) hastakennumerousinitiatives, aimed at enhancing and expanding healthcare services through Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), Central Sector Schemes, etc. Some of the important programs/schemes of Central Government is NHM, PMJAY, PM-ABHIM, PMSSY, ABDM, National Free Drugs service initiative and Free diagnostic service initiative etc. In order to increase public spending on health, NHP-2017 recommends increasing State sector health spending to > 8% of their budget. The scheme wise interventions of Department of Health & Family Welfare for enhancing healthfacilities inunderserved rural & Tribal areasare enumeratedasbelow: 1. The National Health Mission provides technical and financial support for improvement in the health Infrastructure, availability of adequate human resources to improve availability and accessibility toquality healthcareespecially for the underserved and marginalized groups in rural and tribal areas. Under NHM, need-based intervention in terms of healthcareinfrastructure andhumanresources have beendone:  Health facility: The population norms for setting up SHC, PHC and CHC in tribal and hillyareashasbeenrelaxedfrom 5,000,30,000,and1,20,000to3000,20,000and80,000 respectively.  ASHAs: The States/ UTs have been provided with the flexibility of relaxing the norm of one ASHA per 1000 population to one ASHA per habitation in tribal/ hilly and difficult areas.  Mobile Medical Units (MMUs): The provision of 2 MMUs per district in plain areas is relaxed to 4 MMUs per district in tribal/ hilly/ inaccessible/ remote and hard to reach areas. There is further relaxation of up to 10 MMUs per district in PVTG areas under Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN). As per MMU portal, 763 MMUs under PM-JANMAN and 155 MMUs under Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DA-JGUA) are operational across the country for providing basichealthservices intribal areastill 31.12.2025.  There isa provision of additionalANM inMulti-Purpose Centre (MPC) with basic drugs anddiagnosticsfacilitiesunderPMJANMAN. 2. More than 1.80 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs) have been established and operationalized in the country by strengthening Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs), including about 30,817 AAMs (as on 06.02.2026) in 178 tribal districts, which deliver expanded range of comprehensive primary healthcare services encompassing preventive,promotive, palliative,rehabilitative, andcurative care. 3. 168 IPHL and 110 CCBs have been approved in the tribal districts under Pradhan Mantri- Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) which focus on developing capacities of health systems in responding effectively to the current and future pandemics/disasters. 4. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for ‘Establishment of new medical collegesattached with existing district/referral hospitals’ with preference to underserved areas and aspirational districts, where there is no existing Government or private medical college is being implemented. The fund sharing mechanism betweenthe Centre andState Governments is in the ratio of 90:10 for North Eastern and Special Category States, and 60:40 for others. Under the Scheme, all the envisaged 157 medical colleges have been approved including 38 colleges in tribal dominated districts across the country. The details of medical colleges approved in tribal areas are attached at Annexure-I. Further, the Government has recently approved Phase-III and extension of the CSSs for Strengthening and Upgradation of existing State/Central Government Medical Colleges, Standalone PG Institutes and Government Hospitals for creation of 5000 PG seats and 5023 MBBS seats respectively with an enhanced cost ceiling of Rs. 1.50 crore per seat. Guidelines for implementation of these schemes have been issued in November, 2025, wherein, States/UTs including Uttarakhand have been requested to send the Detailed Project Report with proper Gap Analysis. While sending the proposals, States/UTs have been requested to give priority to the institutes in underserved/rural areas and certain broad specialities. Under the above-mentioned schemes, an amount of Rs. 1524 cr. has been allotted in BE 2026-27 against the RE of Rs. 1475 cr. in 2025-26. 5. There are 4 SCI (State Cancer Institutes)/TCCC (Tertiary Care Cancer Centers) are functionalunderNP-NCD Tribal dominatedDistricts. *****Annexure-I TRIBALDISTRICTS UNDER CSSSCHEME S.No. State Districts Status 1 Arunachal Pradesh PapumPare Functional 2 Assam Kokrajhar Functional 3 Bihar Jamui Not-Functional 4 Chhattisgarh Surguja Functional 5 Chhattisgarh Kanker Functional 6 Chhattisgarh Korba Functional 7 Chhattisgarh Mahasamund Functional 8 Chhattisgarh Rajnandgaon Functional 9 Gujarat Narmada Functional 10 Gujarat Navsari Functional 11 Gujarat Panchmahal Functional 12 HimachalPradesh Chamba Functional 13 Ladakh Leh Not-Functional 14 Jammu & Kashmir Rajouri Functional 15 Jharkhand Pashchimi- Singhbhum Not-Functional 16 Jharkhand Dumka Functional 17 Jharkhand Palamu Functional 18 Jharkhand Hazaribagh Functional 19 Madhya Pradesh Mandla Not-Functional 20 Madhya Pradesh Shahdol Functional 21 Madhya Pradesh Chhindwara Functional 22 Madhya Pradesh Singrauli Functional 23 Madhya Pradesh Ratlam Functional 24 Madhya Pradesh Khandwa (East Nimar) Functional 25 Maharashtra Nandurbar Functional 26 Manipur Churachandpur Functional 27 Meghalaya West Garo Hills Not-Functional 28 Mizoram Aizwal Functional 29 Nagaland Mon Not-Functional 30 Nagaland Kohima Functional 31 Odisha Mayurbhanj Functional 32 Odisha Koraput Functional 33 Odisha Kalahandi Functional 34 Rajasthan Banswara Functional 35 Rajasthan Dungarpur Functional 36 Rajasthan Sirohi Functional 37 Rajasthan Dausa Functional 38 Sikkim East District Not-Functional *****