Health: Cambodia allocates $550 Million to boost healthcare quality in 2025

Cambodia's 2025 national budget allocates approximately $550 million to the health sector with the aim of enhancing healthcare quality, combating diseases and achieving universal health coverage.

In September 2024, S.E. Chheang Ra, Minister of Health, pressing the most challenging in Cambodia's health sector due to the increasing number of non-communicable diseases, was notably surpassed by infectious diseases

The budget, amounting to $550 million, is to be allocated across four primary programmes, with $270 million designated for the enhancement of reproductive health, the well-being of youth, mothers, infants, and children, and the improvement of nutrition. Furthermore, a budget of $8 million has been earmarked for combating infectious diseases and responding to public health emergencies.

A budget of $20 million has been allocated for the programme to combat non-communicable diseases and other public health problems. The remaining $264 million is earmarked for health service delivery and human resource development.

In the 2025 national budget, the Ministry of Health is set to receive the second-largest budget package from the government, following the Ministry of Education, which is the largest recipient, among other 39 ministries and public institutions.

Over the period spanning from 2000 to 2019, Cambodia's government expenditure on health increased from 182 billion riel ($47 million) in 2000 to 2,188 billion riel ($539 million) in 2019, representing a 12-fold cumulative increase and an average annual growth rate of 14.4 percent, as reported by the WHO's Global Health Expenditure Database.

In September 2024, S.E. Chheang Ra, Minister of Health, pressing the most challenging in Cambodia's health sector due to the increasing number of non-communicable diseases, was notably surpassed by infectious diseases. Particularly, diabetes and hypertension are two of the most dangerous non-communicable diseases, urging the public to take these threats seriously.

According to the Ministry of Health, non-communicable diseases accounted for 64 percent of all deaths in the country in 2018. This percentage continued to rise each year, contributing to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases.

Despite a significant increase in local healthcare services, in 2023, between 200,000 and 250,000 Cambodians sought health treatment abroad, accounting for 1.5 percent compared to the local treatment of more than 13 million people, according to the Minister of Health

Approximately one in four Cambodians (23 percent) die prematurely before the age of 70 from one of the four main non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular disease (24 percent), cancer (14 percent), chronic respiratory disease (four percent) and diabetes (two percent).