HEALTH INSURANCE MISSING FOR INDIA’S MILLIONS

By Ajay Prakash on April 7, 2022 • ( 0 )

Health Insurance in India remains in a pathetic state. Prime Minister Modi could care less. He and his party are perennially busy in electioneering. This leaves grave policy matters in the hand of inept ministers.

Under the life essentials of food, home and clothing are added necessities of being healthy. But where do we stand in health services and health insurance today? India spends less than 1.5% on health services – probably the lowest in the world.

NITI Aayog has done a wonderful job in highlighting the poor state of health insurance in the country. Forty percent of Indians, the middle-class, today have no health coverage. This leaves them vulnerable to catastrophic expenditure once someone in the family falls.

India falls behind in both life and non-life insurance. Compared to the world averages, we are at the bottom of the list. Not only we do poorly in insuring the vulnerable, the has been no improvement in the last twenty years. In fact, after 2014 we are even worse off.

The catastrophic expenditure for unforeseen illness in the house, can push families into poverty. These illnesses force people to use up their lifetime savings.

Our insurance coverage, as well as the per capita premium paid is the lowest in the world.

On the parameters of health insurance, India stands the lowest in the world, even behind the poor nations. The government health schemes in the country are meant only for the poor. The rich can afford any treatment. That leaves the middle class to fend for themselves.

The government are actually unconcerned of this fact. Probably they have better things to worry about – elections.

In this episode, I highlight the importance of being insured for life and health. In your interest, watch this episode till the end.

Thank you for watching. Your comments are always welcome.