The Union Health Minister on September 27 reiterated the Prime Minister government's commitment to increase the expenditure on public health to 2.5 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

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"The Union Government is committed to increasing the public healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP from the existing 1.15 percent to 2.5 percent by 2025," he said in the third episode of 'Sunday Samvaad', a weekly interaction he has been holding with his social media followers every Sunday for the last three weeks. The Union Health Minister noted that the committed leap in the share means an actual rise of 345 percent from the current expenditure. He also added that the 15th Finance Commission's high-level group on health has concurred that healthcare spending must be raised substantially in the next five years in view of the present pandemic.

Similar commitments have been made by the Prime Minister and the former Health Minister in recent years as well. In 2017, the former Health Minister, now the BJP President, had said that the Central government would increase the total health expenditure to 2.5 percent of the GDP by 2025. Similarly, Modi, while addressing the Partners' Forum in 2018, had said that the government is set to increase its spending on public health to 2.5 percent of the GDP. However, the share of expenditure for public health has remained stagnant at 1.15 percent of the GDP, despite the multiple assurances, and the Modi government has faced flak for reduced and consistently low spending on healthcare for years now. Meanwhile, the Union Health Minister also said that the Central government had added 29,185 MBBS seats in the last five years while answering a question on the disparity of setting up AIIMS in different regions while approving merely one for the entire northeast region.

He informed that the Centre would establish new medical colleges attached with existing district and referral hospitals in Dhubri, Nagaon, North Lakhimpur, Diphu, and Kokrajhar districts in Assam, Churachandrapur in Manipur, West Garo Hills district in Meghalaya, Falkawan district in Mizoram, and Kohima and Mon in Nagaland.