An Analysis of India's Public Health Expenditure and Economic Growth

Health expenditure is considered as an investment, because its returns result in building a strong human capital, which serves as a crucial lever of economic growth. Public health expenditure in India is affected by population and the GDP⁽¹⁾. The main aim of this paper is to ascertain the relationship of India’s health care expenditure with its population and GDP growth rate between 2009-10 and 2016-17 and also to analyze the annual growth rate of these economic factors using a trend line. To analyze the health care expenditure in comparison with population and GDP, the multiple linear regression models was used. The finding of the study shows that there exists a linear relationship among public health expenditure, population, and GDP. The trend line of the annual growth rates shows that allocations for health care expenditure are decreasing but the population and GDP are increasing. India’s health spending found to very less when compared with America, England and China.