Govt to come up with a universal health insurance soon, consultations on with stakeholders

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Moneycontrol News
The Union government is said to be coming out with a comprehensive universal health insurance scheme covering the entire country very soon, according to a senior official of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The official speaking on condition of anonymity told Moneycontrol that the government is holding consultations with various stakeholders including insurance companies and hospitals.

The official declined to put a timeframe on the rollout, but said the government is “very serious”.

The official added that the government is considering a range of options such as co-pay where a portion of premium will be borne by the policy holder and tax-funded model with joint contribution from Centre and the States.

Providing universal healthcare has been the promise of the Narendra Modi government, but the progress has been patchy as the government grapples problems such as service delivery, designing sustainable financing model and regulation of healthcare providers and insurance companies.

The government currently provides health insurance of up to Rs 30,000 to below poverty line (BPL) households and unorganized workers under the flagship programme Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

However, the scheme remained ineffective with low enrollment rates and hardly had any impact on financial protection of poor households.

The study showed till 2014, only 11 percent of the BPL families were registered under the scheme, after six years of existence.

An Economic and Political Weekly research paper by the economists Soumitra Ghosh and Nabanita Datta Gupta showed that the RSBY has failed to cover an adequate number of poor households.

In addition to RSBY various state governments provide health insurance to BPL households of up to Rs.1 -1.5 lakh.

Healthcare in India unlike developed world is largely met by patient out-of-pocket. Often health problems pushes people to poverty.