'Maharashtra needs to increase health spending over Rs 74 billion by 2018'
Maharashtra is the second largest state in terms of population in India where 45.2% people reside in urban areas with an income of over Rs.15,40,000 crores. However, with the growing urbanization there is a need to look at the growing healthcare costs as well.
Dr Ashok K Agarwal, Dean, IIHMR-Delhi, at the conference expressed, “According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) the average cost of hospitalization in India has risen from Rs. 8851 to Rs. 24436. The average cost of hospitalization in Maharashtra alone is Rs. 20,475 out of which 19.2% people have been utilizing the services of Public hospitals and 80.8% have been utilizing the services of private hospitals. According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the percentage distribution of Public Health Expenditure in Maharashtra alone is 8.70%, the highest after Uttar Pradesh.”
The Budget 2015-16 announced that the total spends in India for Department of Health and Family Welfare will be Rs. 29,653 crore. However, as per the Economic Survey in 2014-15, it was striking to notice that NRHM’s total outlay to enable universal access to quality health services in Maharashtra alone was Rs. 561.92 crore.
Dr. Agarwal also mentioned that, “According to the 2014 report of Directorate of Health Services, Govt of Maharashtra, the total Public Health institutes in the state are 12,821 these include the PHCs, Community Health Centers. There are various Medical services introduced by the NHM including a project under the name of Maharashtra emergency Medical Services where the total number of patients served were 1,84,390 between April to December 2014."
He further added, "Inspite of all these facilities available the total health spends in the state are a mere 0.48% out of the total income in the state is a cause of concern. As a result of which the out-of-pocket expenditure is higher causing a burden of high health cost felt by the middle and lower income segments in the state.”
According to the PHFI findings for MoHFW, nationally the skill gap is approximately 97.9% across various health workforce categories where, Maharashtra is the 2nd largest of the states witnessing skill gap with 5.65 lakh less paramedics.
According to the Directorate of Health Services, Government of Maharashtra, the total number of attacks and deaths both sporadic and outbreaks upto December 2014-15 due to diseases such as Cholera, Gastro, Diarrohea, Hepatitis, Typhoid and Leptospirosis have been 10,16,050 and 21 respectively.
To overcome these health challenges, Maharashtra’s health budget needs to be a little more ambitious to overcome the lack of public health and public health facilities and fill in skill gaps of huge vacancies in Rural Hospitals and other hospitals as well as PHCs, especially of doctors, specialists and nurses, overcome gross inadequacy of drug supplies in public facilities, poor maintenance of public health facilities and key equipment etc.
The state should also look at investing in Healthcare IT which is expected increase by CAGR of 13.4% during the forecast period of 2015 to 2020.
