This publication presents estimates of health expenditure in Sri Lanka from 1990-2014. It is the fourth edition in the current Sri Lanka Health Accounts (SLHA) series, updating the previous publication released in 2014.
Current health expenditure (CHE) in Sri Lanka in 2013 is Rs. 258 billion, equivalent to 3.0% of GDP, and Rs. 12,535 per capita. The government financed 43% while the private sector accounted for 56% of the healthcare costs. While 37% of the overall spending was on inpatient care, the share of outpatient care was 21%. Pharmacy sales of medicines were responsible for a quarter of health spending. Expenditure on public health programmes was 5%. According to the type of institution, 48% of the spending was incurred in hospitals as opposed to 46% in non-hospital facilities.
This publication for the first time uses SHA 2011 framework. The improvements in the present publication include several changes in the underlying data sources and revisions to estimation methods in compliance with international standards. This publication provides updated estimates for all years since 1990 to ensure full comparability of the SLHA estimates across different years, in addition to being compatible with all three frameworks, namely SHA 2011, SHA 1.0 and SLNHA.