Overcoming the challenges in the healthcare insurance sector
Health insurance is a type of insurance that covers medical expenses that arise due to an illness. These expenses could be related to hospitalization costs, cost of medicines or doctor consultation fees. Today, various health insurance schemes are available in the market and providing benefits from an individual to an entire family. This is one of the major growing sectors in India. With the world grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, there is renewed focus on healthcare insurance sector. However, even today, very few Indians have health insurance. India has one of the world’s highest rates of out of pocket spending in healthcare. Even among the growing number of the middle class, for whom health insurance would be a worthwhile investment, very few comprehend the value of an insurance plan. No proper attention is given to rural areas for development of the healthcare insurance sector. Low insurance penetration and density rates prevail in India.
AI, and data analysis are emerging as potent tools to help create better offerings and improve processes. Technology is also affecting other aspects of the industry including diagnostics, hospital care, care delivery mechanisms, analytics, risk-assessment etc. As more companies enter the domain and drive more innovation and competition, healthcare prices will come down and drive greater momentum towards achieving the goal of universal health coverage for all.
5 Major problems that India faces:
- Medical Expenditure
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes this problem and thus, its theme for World Health Day 2019 is Universal Health Coverage. This includes creating awareness about equal access to health services for everyone. Such out-of-pocket medical expenses are a major healthcare challenge in India.
- Preventive Care
Home remedies are often the first response for health issues. While they might be productive for minor issues, home remedies can be further damaging in cases where prompt medical attention is required. Also, blind-faith on the videos and articles easily available online can be detrimental.
- Rural Infrastructure
Physicians, dispensaries, hospitals, etc. are clustered in cities whereas rural areas are left unserved to a great extent. The rural infrastructure is so worrisome that there is only one government hospital bed for around 2000 people in India.
- Public Welfare
Subsidies and increase in welfare budgets are some of the activities undertaken by the authorities for citizens’ benefit.
- Low Medical Insurance Coverage
When it comes to low per capita healthcare expenditure across the globe, India features among the lowest. A Forbes article states, more than 75% of Indians do not have medical insurance. Absence of the financial cushioning provided by medical insurance results in exhaustion of savings in order to tackle medical issues.
