Kerala continues to have the highest per capita out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on health in the country despite the fact that it is one of the States with the highest per capita government health expenditure (GHE) in 2019-20.
The State’s per capita OOPE rose from ₹6,772 in 2018-19 to ₹7,206 in 2019-20, even when its per capita GHE increased from ₹2,479 to ₹2,590, according to the key financial indicators in the latest National Health Accounts 2019-20, released recently.
NHA figures show that Kerala’s total expenditure on health (THE) in 2019-20 was ₹37,124 crore. However, out of this, ₹25,222 crore was spent from people’s own pockets (OOPE). As a percentage of the total health expenditure, Kerala’s OOPE was the second highest in the country at 67.9%, second only to Uttar Pradesh, which also has a high OOPE at 71.8% of its total health expenditure.
