Are Publicly Financed Health Insurance Schemes Working in India? (original) (raw)

2013, SSRN Electronic Journal

Our analysis shows that it is premature to dismiss the publicly financed health insurance initiatives based on the existing analysis because these schemes perform better with time. This could be due to supply side factors such as improved implementation or demand side factors such as awareness of the scheme and financial literacy amongst users. To test this, we run the analysis by varying the treatment group to only include districts (a) that have schemes actually running and (b) schemes running for at least a year. The outcomes that we analyze are impoverishment, catastrophic healthcare expenditure and poverty gap change. The NSSO expenditure data reveals that Indian households spend significantly more on OPD than on institutional healthcare, and medicines account for nearly 80 percent of such OPD expenses. The publicly financed health insurance schemes, however, focus exclusively on secondary and tertiary care services. The analysis reveals modest impact of these schemes in the beginning year, but a significant improvement over time. Lessons from microfinance strongly suggest that unlike other financial instruments, health insurance is a more sophisticated product where utilization improves with financial literacy and awareness.

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact