ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The cumulative health expenditures of federal and the provinces are estimated at Rs 384.57 billion for the fiscal year 2017-18, which is 31.75 percent higher than the actual expenditures of Rs 291.90 billion incurred during the fiscal year 2016- 17.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan released by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail here Thursday, total health expenditure increased both in terms of growth and as percentage of GDP (gross domestic product). It grew by 29.54 percent to Rs 291.90 billion last fiscal year against Rs 225.87 billion in 2015-16. Encouragingly, the health expenditure surpassed the budget allocation of Rs 273.34 billion set for 2016-17.
While in terms of GDP, health expenditure increased to 0.91 percent during the fiscal year 2016-17 from 0.77 per cent recorded in 2015-16.
During the months of July-February, 2017-18 the health expenditure consumed 43.5 percent of budget allocation to reach Rs 167.16 billion against Rs 121.57 billion in the comparable period of fiscal year 2016-17. In terms of growth, it increased by 37.51 percent. It increased to 0.49 percent of GDP during July February, 2017-18 from 0.38 percent recorded in the same period of fiscal year 2016-17.
It is worth mentioning that the current fiscal year has witnessed a considerable increase in budget allocation for health expenditure showing 40.7 percent growth by allocating Rs 384.57 billion during the fiscal year 2017-18 compared with Rs 273.34 billion during year 2016-17.
According to the break-up of federal and provincial share in total public spending on health during July-February, 2017-18, the major share of spending on health has been observed in Punjab (84.8 percent) followed by Sindh (41.1 percent) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (17.6 percent) and Balochistan (11.3 percent)
The Prime Minister’s Health Programme was launched initially in 23 districts and under Phase-II, the services have been expanded to 40 districts to cover 14 million families. It is a milestone welfare reforms programme, ensuring that the under-privileged citizens across the country get access to medical health care in a swift and dignified manner without any financial obligations.
The funding for the programme is being provided by the federal and provincial governments. A total amount of Rs 15.0 billion was allocated in PSDP 2017-18 for the two phases of the programme.
As of 31st January 2018, more than 1,655,657 families had been enrolled in the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme and more than 56,000 families were for various illnesses from 125 empanelled hospitals across Pakistan.