A Whitepaper released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and India Health Progress recommends health insurance as one of the key pillars to increase access to healthcare in India especially among the economically challenged patients. The whitepaper on Health Insurance was released today at Dr. Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute, Hyderabad.
Health insurance has historically played a pivotal role in improving access to healthcare around the world. Unfortunately, less than 15% of the Indian population is covered under some form of health insurance, including government-supported schemes. Only around 2.2% of the population is covered under private health insurance, of which rural health insurance penetration is less than 10%.
The paper highlights the broad issues afflicting the health insurance sector, taking into account the views of all industry stakeholders — patients, physicians, insurance service providers, hospitals, as well as Government and regulatory representatives.
Speaking on the occasion Mr. Sujay Shetty, Leader - Pharma Life Sciences, PricewaterhouseCoopers said, “India’s diverse population has limited purchasing power. Penetrating this market therefore requires innovative insurance products at multiple price points. But innovation in the current Indian health insurance market needs to evolve considerably. Low-priced insurance products can play a big role in ensuring higher healthcare access for poor sections of the society.”
The whitepaper is the outcome of a roundtable meeting held on 24 January 2011 on Health Insurance at India Islamic Cultural Centre, Delhi. The conference was attended by various Govt. and industry leaders from Insurance, Pharmaceutical and Health sector as well as doctors.
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“Health insurance is particularly critical for people living below the poverty line (BPL). This is because an illness is especially threatening for BPL families. Not only is it a threat to their income earning capacity, it could also result in the family falling into a debt trap”, said Ranga Iyer, Healthcare Consultant.
The final recommendations included in this whitepaper focus on the requirement of a new business model to create the demand for insurance products. Considering that private and public insurance companies have all failed in some way or the other to meet the country’s health insurance needs, and given the massive shortfall in various segments, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) would be best to meet these needs. A PPP permits the best points of both systems to prevail, whereby social obligations can be met while simultaneously ensuring profits too.
“Affordability of healthcare by low income sections of the society is a matter of concern when it comes to healthcare access. Also, the out of pocket spending by middle income families on healthcare leads to economic depletion hence affecting their overall health needs. Health insurance help in a long way to solve this issue”, said Aman Gupta, Principal Advisor, India Health Progress.
Apart from the requirement of a new business model, another recommendation was to reduce the premiums and collection costs particularly for the people from rural regions. One problem that raises the cost of insurance premiums is the effort and exercise involved in collecting premiums. Hence, the Government needs to facilitate the creation of a Distribution Network or system so that insurers need not spend huge amounts on field staff and infrastructure to collect premiums. And also, the insurance companies could be encouraged to tie up with telecom operators or other companies with a presence in rural and hinterland regions to collect premiums or enroll new customers via an ad hoc distribution network.
About India Health Progress
India Health Progress is an initiative by Imprimis Life, a healthcare communications consultant with almost 12 years’ experience in the Indian healthcare sector. It seeks to bring all institutions and individuals committed to Indian healthcare under a common platform. The working model of India Health Progress will revolve around engaging partners in the healthcare industry, involving them in discussions around the identified aspects and resolving the setback by finding a solution. It will also focus on providing the resource and knowledge support to partnering organizations on the various critical issues related to healthcare. Visit www.indiahealthprogress.in
