India's National Health Accounts for 2022-23, released on May 27, put government funding at 43.7% of total health expenditure, up from 28.6% in 2013-14. Direct household payments fell from 64.2% to 43.4% over that period. The figures describe the national financing mix, not a corresponding reduction in each patient's bill.
The household share had reached 39.4% in 2021-22 during exceptional pandemic expenditure, before rising in 2022-23. Government health spending in the latest accounts equals 1.43% of GDP on the old series and 1.48% on the rebased series: changing the denominator changes the ratio, not the expenditure.
Social-security health spending increased from 6% to 9.9% of total expenditure. This category includes government-funded insurance, employee medical reimbursements and social health insurance. Private insurance's share rose from 3.4% to 9.2%. Government spending on primary care increased from Rs 0.5 lakh crore to Rs 1.4 lakh crore between the two reporting years.
A separate parliamentary answer on March 17 supplies more recent programme figures. By February 28, 2026, Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY had authorised 11.69 crore hospital admissions worth Rs 1.73 lakh crore. These cumulative programme totals describe approved hospital care; they cover a different period from the 2022-23 national expenditure accounts.
The ministry reported 43.52 crore Ayushman cards, including 1.14 crore Vay Vandana cards for people aged 70 and above. Its hospital network comprised 19,483 public and 16,746 private institutions, totalling 36,229. The national benefit package listed 1,961 procedures across 27 medical specialties for cashless secondary and tertiary hospital care.
PM-JAY provides annual family coverage of Rs 5 lakh for its eligible population. Coverage had expanded to approximately 37 lakh families of ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers in March 2024, followed by eligibility for older citizens irrespective of economic status. These later expansions identify actual government financing commitments, but cannot explain changes measured before their introduction.
