Behind the Numbers: Emerging Trends in Health insurance in India

In India health insurance was introduced in the year 1986. Since then this sector has grown rapidly driven by various factors such as increase in the average life expectancy and average income level, rising awareness about health insurance and also due to opening up of insurance sector to private players as part of liberalisation. Over the years, the number of health care scheme meant for poor and BPL categories as well as community based schemes sponsored by Government also increased. But still a major part of Indian population is outside the preview of health insurance coverage which in turn leads to huge out of pocket expenses and large proportion of people either sells their assets or takes loans in order to settle their huge medical bills. In this backdrop this paper analyses mismatch between growth in health insurance sector and disproportionate growth in health insurance penetration in the context of India.