Hugara Siddalingappa

Health insurance coverage and healthcare expenditure pattern in rural Mandya, Karnataka

In the absence of Universal health coverage (UHC) all people and communities cannot use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need and use of these services expose the user to financial hardship. Protecting the families from the financial consequences of paying for health services out of their pocket reduces the risk of them being pushed into poverty because unexpected illness requires them to use up their savings, sell assets or borrow from others destroying their livelihood and often those of their children. Around 28 crore individuals have some form of health insurance in India as on 2014-15 which is 22% of total population of India, of which 73% were under public insurance companies. Over 60% of the health care expenditure was on medicines both in rural and urban India in 2011-12. Average of INR 5636 was spent on hospitalization in public hospitals while INR 21726 was spent in private hospitals. Various types of health insurances that are available in India include Central Government HI, Social HI, Community Based HI and Private HI. Health Insurance coverage in costal Karnataka was 57%. Recently Karnataka government approved a universal health coverage scheme in a effort to increase the health insurance coverage. Study conducted in neighboring district (Mysore) shows a ABSTRACT