Patna,(BiharTimes): With Rs 348 per person per year Bihar spends lowest on health in India. The figure is less than half of the country’s average of Rs 724 per person per year.
According to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data Bihar has the highest dependence on private health-care services.
As high as 91 per cent of outpatient health services in Bihar are sought through the private sector. A recently released figure by Brookings India, the New Delhi-based arm of the US think tank, said the state’s dependence on private health care is higher than India’s average of 74 per cent. Uttar Pradesh with 87 per cent and Bengal with 84 per cent are second and third. Only six per cent of Bihar’s population is covered by health insurance compared with 15 per cent in India.
. The Brookings paper also estimates that 11 per cent or about 22 lakh of state’s two crore households have faced ‘catastrophic’ health expenditure, levels that threaten to push them towards impoverishment.
