Macro/Finance Group, NIPFP

In recent years there has been an increased role for health insurance in Indian health care, through government-funded health insurance programs and privately purchased health insurance. Our analysis of the claims ratio and the complaints rate in the health insurance industry, suggests that there are important difficulties with the working of health insurance. The lack of fair play in this industry is derived from deficiencies in regulations, weak enforcement of regulations and faulty institutional design of consumer redress. The solutions lie in laws and regulatory processes for consumer protection. The thought process of health policy and financial policy converges in the strategy for change.

Links

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Press

• Insurers have too much say in picking ombudsmen by Rema Nagarajan, in Times of India, 17^thSeptember 2018.
• Are you better off without a health insurance policy? by Rema Nagarajan, in Times of India, 12^thSeptember 2018.
• The dice is loaded against those buying health insurance in India by Monika Halan, in Livemint, 5^thSeptember 2018.
• Health Insurance: What Ails Health Insurance Industry? by Moneylife Digital Team, in Moneylife, 22^thMay 2018.
• 6 customer-friendly changes the new insurance regulator should make by Kapil Sharma, in Livemint, 21^thMay 2018.
• Govt needs to boost health financing and place strategic purchasing effort to boost universal health coverage by Pharmabiz Bureau Bengaluru, in Pharmabiz, 17^thMay 2018.
• In India, Health Insurance Doesn't Work in a Desirable or Sustainable Manner by Shefali Malhotra, Ila Patnaik, Shubho Roy and Ajay Shah, on The WIRE, 9^thMay 2018.
• Fair play in Indian health insurance by Shefali Malhotra, Ila Patnaik, Shubho Roy and Ajay Shah, on Ajay Shah's blog, 30^thApril 2018.