Primary Submission Category: Health equity
Does Socioeconomic differences exist in health insurance coverage among men and women across India: Evidence from the National Family Health Survey 2019-2021
Authors: Rufi Shaikh
Presenting Author: Rufi Shaikh*
Introduction: Health insurance has been accepted as one of the channels that can serve the purpose of universalisation of health care. However, coverage of insurance remains low and is substantially affected by the socioeconomic status of individuals.
Method: Principal Component Analysis was used to identify the covariates which affected coverage of insurance among Indians. Socioeconomic differences in health insurance coverage and choice of different health insurance schemes among Indians was quantified using binary and multinomial logistic regression econometric models.
Result: Huge gender and regional differentials exist in the coverage of different health insurance schemes in India. On an average, females had 3% higher chance of getting covered by any health insurance scheme as compared to their male counterparts. Coverage of health insurance was skewed towards individuals with higher age (odds-ratio=1.7 for population between 46-60 years of age), greater educational status (odds-ratio=1.11 for individuals with greater than secondary education), higher socio-economic status (odds-ratio=1.16 for population from higher economic status) and high GDP states. Population residing in rural areas and belonging to the weaker economic classes were twice as likely to get insured through central and state health insurance scheme and through Rashtriya Swaathya Bhima Yojana as compared to other public and private insurance schemes.
Conclusion: Though coverage of health insurance has improved over the years, absolute number of individuals covered through various schemes is substantially low. Awareness about various health insurance through different mass communications can be a useful reform to increase insurance coverage and reduce health inequities across India.