Around 630 million people in India or one may say the 50% of the total
population by 2015, will be covered by the various Health Insurance packages
for sure. It is very much likely to cross that land mark in coming 3 years or
so. This has been stated in a latest report of the World Bank itself.
World
Bank conducted a study on Government-Sponsored Health Insurance Schemes (GSHIS)
few days back. The study stated that the health financing schemes of the new
generation can surely help India’s progress towards the all important universal
health coverage. As a good result of that more than 630 million people or 50%
of the India’s population are likely to be covered by health insurance by the
year of 2015 only.
According to the said study, GSHIS have been succeeded to increase in
the overall population covered by health insurance in the country, and the
increase rate is quite significant in deed. So the schemes have been able to
contribute a lot in matter of the universal health coverage, which is the
primary goal.
As
per the report there are a few contributing factors to the significant rise of
the covered people. The report basically mentions three lines i.e. Rashtriya
Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), various commercial insurance and state-sponsored
schemes.
According to the
World Bank Study, GSHIS coverage is very much likely to be more than double to
630 million by the year of 2015. In 2009-10 the number of people, who are
covered by Health Insurance, are 243 million only.
In the year
of 2003-04 the scenario was quite poor. At that time only 55 million people
have the access of health insurance coverage, but with time the situation has
changed quite drastically, and the present scenario is quite good in deed. Over
300 million people, which is almost 25% of India’s total population, had been
able to gain access to some form of health insurance by the year of 2010, and
the best part is half of the insured people are from the Below Poverty Line (BPL)
families, who needed it the most, the study added.
The
Country Director (India) of World Bank, Onno Ruhl said that the new generation
government aided health insurance schemes is improving the use of common public
resources for health, and the process is especially for the poor. It has to be
mentioned here that health insurance is a main key factor to the overall growth
of a certain country. Considering the huge population of India it’s quite tough
for the government to include 100% of the population under health coverage by a
year or so. The government is trying its best, and 50% by the year of 2015 is a
commendable job in deed.
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