National Health Accounts (NHA) provide the information about the flow of resources and funds of the country’s health system. NHA illustrates national health spending of the country from public and private sector, including household spending. Thus, NHA is useful for situation analysis, planning, monitoring, and evaluation purposes.
The policy brief on the Bhutan National Health Accounts (NHA) 2021 highlighted the findings and the policy implications from the NHA of the financial year (FY) 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Key findings are:
The total health expenditure (THE) in FY 2019/20 has increased in comparison to FY 2018/19. THE in FY 2018/19 was estimated at Nu. 7.2 billion, while in FY 2019/20, it was estimated at Nu. 8.7 billion. THE for the FY 2018/19 and 2019/20 accounted for 4% and 4.5 % of GDP, respectively.
The current health expenditure (CHE) has increased from 17% in FY 2018/19 to 22% in FY 2019/20. The total estimation of CHE for FY 2018/19 and 2019/20 were Nu. 6.2 billion and Nu. 7.7 billion, respectively.
The highest proportion of the health expenditures was curative care services (54%), then followed by preventive care (14%), other medical goods (11%), and the medicines (9.6%).
Public finance is a main source of health spending for both FY 2018/19 and 2019/20, which accounted for 70.2% and 73.4% of CHE, respectively.