Desai co-authors brief on health insurance inequities in India

Sonalde Desai

In an NCAER National Data Innovation Centre Measurement Brief, Prof. Desai and colleagues examine health care coverage and usage in several Indian contexts. They find, among other things, that insured households are not always aware of their entitlements, that there are inequalities in knowledge of health insurance schemes, and that lack of such knowledge is associated with low usage of health insurance.

For example, "[D]espite having an active health insurance, the beneficiaries in a majority of the hospitalisation cases did not claim any reimbursement or cashless benefits. Among the . . . beneficieries who had a higher level of knowledge of health insurance (CKI ≥ 3), 17.8 per cent availed of cashless benefits or reimbursement for in-patient treatment. However, among beneficiaries having a comparatively lower level of knowledge (CKI < 3), only 8.7 per cent availed of cashless benefits or reimbursement for in-patient treatment," they write.

"In recent years, the Government of India has made substantial efforts to increase access to health insurance and the proportion of households enrolled in an insurance scheme has increased over time. However, access to insurance is not synonymous with access to coverage. A vast majority of the insured fail to utilise the benefits extended by health insurance schemes. This may lead to higher OOP for the households even if they have access to health insurance. Our findings suggest that lack of knowledge about the benefits and enti-tlements among the beneficiaries could be one of the main reasons behind under-utilisation of health insurance schemes towards payment for treatment."

See the complete NCAER National Data Centre Measurement Brief 

Barik, D., Pramanik, S. and Desai, S. (2021). "Insured but Not Covered:  Rising Insurance Coverage Should be Accompanied by Awareness of Entitlements," NCAER National Data Centre Measurement Brief 2020-02. National Council of Applied Economic Research, India.

Published on Thu, 04/24/2025 - 10:37