New Delhi, ONS 80th Round of Household Consumption: Health Survey findings highlight a significant increase in access to healthcare across the country, supported by targeted government interventions, expansion of public health services, and increased insurance coverage.
The survey, which covered rural and urban areas across the country, included 1,39,732 households, including 76,296 in rural areas and 63,436 in urban areas, thus providing powerful ground-level insights into healthcare access, affordability, and utilization patterns.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that the results of the 80th round of the National Statistics Office are supported by the government’s continuous increase in public investment in the health sector over the years.
The enhanced budget allocations have enabled significant expansion of healthcare infrastructure across primary, secondary and tertiary levels, strengthened human resources, and supported the scaling up of key initiatives focusing on preventive, promotional and curative care, the statement said.
The average out-of-pocket medical spending per hospitalization in 2025 was $11,285, indicating that more than half of the country’s hospitalizations involve relatively low spending. Only a small number of high-cost cases raise the average, the report said.
This indicates that high spending is not widespread but is limited to specific cases that require specialized treatment. Furthermore, more than half of all hospitalizations in public health facilities are borne by OOPE alone $The report said 1100.
More importantly, for out-of-hospital care, the average OOPE in public health facilities is zero, reflecting that a large proportion of citizens have access to basic health care services absolutely free.
The Free Medicines and Free Diagnostics Initiative launched by the government in 2015 has ensured availability of free medicines and diagnostic services to people even in remote areas of the country.
This paradigm shift in accessibility to primary and basic healthcare is also aided by over 1.84 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs located across the country, significantly expanding the scope of comprehensive primary healthcare, the statement said.
These centers are also leveraging digital health innovations to improve access. Enhancing diagnosis through the hub-and-spoke model with sample transportation has improved the accessibility and availability of diagnostic services across different levels of healthcare.
Moreover, the Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment initiative, which includes over 220 pharmacies across 29 states and union territories, makes over 6,500 medicines available at discounts of up to 50 per cent on market prices, significantly improving the affordability of treatment.
These gains have been further consolidated through the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and other targeted government interventions, which have enhanced access, lowered financial barriers, and strengthened confidence in public healthcare systems.
Encouragingly, this enhanced affordability has coincided with a significant increase in demand for health care.
The survey report said the proportion of population disease reporting nearly doubled between the 75th and 80th rounds from 6.8 per cent to 12.2 per cent in rural areas and from 9.1 per cent to 14.9 per cent in urban areas, indicating improved awareness and a decisive shift towards proactive health-seeking behaviour.
The survey also detected an important epidemiological shift, with a decline in infectious diseases and a rise in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This reflects the impact of ongoing information, education and communication efforts, cross-sector convergence through community platforms such as village, health, sanitation and nutrition committees, and large-scale screening initiatives at the primary care and community levels.
In response to increasing demand, the use of public health care facilities has been enhanced, especially for outpatient care in rural areas, where utilization has increased from 33 to 35 percent. This improvement is due to the expansion of comprehensive primary health care services, with a focus on preventive, promotive and early diagnostic care, supported by the availability of free medicines and diagnostics.
Financial risk protection has expanded significantly with the rapid expansion of government-funded health insurance coverage, including under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and various state schemes.
The percentage of the population covered by government health financing/insurance schemes in the country has increased from 12.9 percent to 45.5 percent in rural areas and from 8.9 percent to 31.8 percent in urban areas, representing a more than three-fold expansion.
This represents a major milestone in protecting vulnerable populations from catastrophic health expenditures and promoting equal access to healthcare, the statement said.
Further reinforcing this trend, detailed household-level data reveal a declining trajectory in direct spending between the bottom two consumption quintiles. This indicates that the economically weaker sectors reap the greatest benefit from government interventions.
The survey also highlighted continued progress in maternal and child health outcomes, with institutional deliveries increasing from 90.5 percent in 2017-18 to 95.6 percent in 2025 in rural areas and from 96.1 percent to 97.8 percent in urban areas over the same time period.
This reflects the government’s ongoing efforts to promote safe motherhood and enhance access to quality maternal healthcare services through programs including Quality Assurance, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram and Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan.
The survey further stated that nearly two-thirds of births in rural areas occur in government health facilities, while 47 percent of births in urban areas occur there.
The survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics also revealed an increasing trend in the use of public health facilities over the past three rounds. It shows that while about 28 percent of the rural population sought outpatient care in public facilities in 2014, this number rose to 35 percent in 2025.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
