The shaky public health care system is one of the weak factors leading to poor human development index of the country. Indian health care system has lot of defects leading by low public expenditure by the federal and state governments and low awareness of health insurance among citizens of the country. Government does not have any coherent and sustainable plan to fulfill health care demands and increasing overall health care standards of the country. Owing to many years of neglect, lower-level public healthcare facilities often suffer from a range of problems, including worker absenteeism and dual public-private practice, truncated demand for their use, and scarcities of supplies and staff which has been one of the major factors for a poor health care system.
Health insurance is not a new concept in India but its lack of awareness among people is the major hindrance leading to poor health care situation. Majority of the Indian population does not have health insurance policies in place leading them to pay for health and medical treatments from their own pockets. The World Health Organization’s global health care portfolio ranks India as low as 112 out of 190 countries which does not meet the country’s ambition as a developing economy. This can be attributed to the fact that health insurance is really a minor player in the health ecosystem of the country and which needs large attention in order to turn and rectify this situation.
Indian health care system is going through major transition where government and other private players are running several programs to increase awareness of importance of health insurance. Several non-profit organizations’ are also working hard to provide knowledge to Indian rural population which is almost 70{3813292df256cc7359db914c8bfffc508a0964aa786224d36d2cb21f4b33d600} of the country’s total population regarding health insurance schemes and their necessity in the event of a contingency.
Historically, health insurance has played a pivotal role in improving access to health care around the world and same is happening in India. Today, most Indians seek private health care facilities which have helped improving health care system in the country. Many people have understood growing necessity of health insurance schemes but still most of the people remain uneducated about its importance. Health insurance penetration in the country is largely limited to urban areas where most of the people are educated and are above poverty lines. Most of them are covered under health insurance provided by their employers which is actually helping to improve health care system in the country. But due to poor penetration in the rural areas, health insurance companies face big challenges to overcome the same.
Many of the health insurance companies in India have tie ups with foreign partners to provide health insurance to bigger masses and have been able to succeed as well. Though, challenges remain for the health insurance providers but increasing their own business and to provide quality health care to the community will drive them to increase penetration leading to improvement in the overall health care structure of the country.
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