Government Health Financing in India : Challenges in Achieving Ambitious Goals
The Government of India has publicly committed to a doubling or trebling of government health spending by 2012 and launched a major program, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), to help spend the additional funds and achieve better health outc...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/12/13843166/government-health-financing-india-challenges-achieving-ambitious-goals http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13597 |
| Summary: | The Government of India has publicly
committed to a doubling or trebling of government health
spending by 2012 and launched a major program, the National
Rural Health Mission (NRHM), to help spend the additional
funds and achieve better health outcomes. This paper reviews
recent data on trends in government spending and various
scenarios of central and state funding to assess the
feasibility of achieving these financing goals. The goal of
2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for government
health spending is unlikely to be achieved, although there
is clear evidence of program growth. Much larger state-level
spending is needed to accelerate overall government spending
in India's federal system. In addition, there is
evidence of constraints in the ability to spend
significantly increased budgets in a timely way and possible
state substitution of increased central funding for existing
state budgets. Significantly increasing government health
spending in India requires more than simply raising budgets
at the central level. NRHM does show some positive effects,
but the rapid gains envisaged will require greater efforts
to address the shortcomings of government systems and
creative approaches to India complex federal financing system. |
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