A recent survey by the National Statistical Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation shows that the health insurance market is not well penetrated in India as more than half of Indians do not have healthcare cover.
The NSO has conducted the survey on household social consumption related to health during the period July 2017 to June 2018 as a part of 75th round of national sample survey.
Here are some of the key highlights of the survey:
- Only 14% of the rural population and 19% of urban population reported that they had health expenditure coverage.
- Only 13% of rural and 9% of urban population reported that they were covered by government sponsored health insurance.
- About 1% of rural and 6% of urban population reported that they were covered by health insurance arranged by government or PSU as employer or employer-supported health protection schemes.
- 4% of urban population reported that they were covered by health insurance arranged by the households with insurance companies.
- Average medical expenditure per hospitalisation case excluding childbirth per in rural India stands at about Rs. 16,676 and Rs. 26,475 in urban India.
- In Government/public hospitals the expenditure was about Rs. 4,452 about Rs. 4,290 in rural and Rs. 4,837 in urban areas. In private hospitals the expenditure was about Rs. 31,845 about Rs. 27,347 in rural and Rs. 38,822 in urban areas.
The present survey was spread across the country and data were collected from 1,13,823 households (64,552 in rural areas and 49,271 in urban areas), covering 5,55,115 persons (3,25,883 in rural areas and 2,29,232 in urban areas)
The healthcare protection ratio is low despite government’s recently launched health insurance schemed called Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The health assurance scheme aims to provide free health insurance of Rs. 5 lakh per family to nearly 40% of the population—more than 100 million poor and vulnerable families.