Emergence of Health Insurance as an Alternative to Out-of-Pocket Expenses

In recent decades, India has witnessed a significant transformation in it's health care landscape, with an inreasing emphasis on reducing the burden of out-of-pocket health expenses. Out-of-pocket expenditure, which has traditionally been the primary means of financing health care in the country, oftne leads to financial distress and inadequate access to quality medical services for millions of Indians. the new Indian Health Policy (2017), is in place to stregthen the health care system in India, with an aim of providing universal access to good quality health care services to all. to attain this targe, Indian Government started Ayushman Bharath Yojana, the wolrd's biggest health program, in 2018, which might represent major step towards achieving universal health coverage in India. the program covers total of Rs.5 lakh per family per year for different medical procedures. Even though the Indian Governement taking steps to enchance publc health, much more must be done to provide universal health coverage. Individual spending on health care in India has incresed significantly over the years. although health insurance is a very good alternative funding mechanism and it has grwn significantly over the years, the Indian population's own spending on health has not decresed. This paper examines the emergence and grwoing adoption of health insurance as a viable alternative for out-of-pocket expenditure in india. It delves into the factors driving the rise of health insurance as a preferred finanical tool for managing health care costs and explores the impact of this shift on the Indian health care system.

Emergence of Health Insurance as an Alternative to Out-of-Pocket Expenses Keywords:

Out of Pocket Expenditure , Health Insurance Premium , Claims Ratios