-The Hindu The reduction of out-of-pocket expenditure that the NHA highlights is essentially due to a decline in utilisation of care Low public spending on health in India has meant that people depend heavily on their own means to access health care. It causes rich-poor, rural-urban, gender and caste-based divides in access to health care, pushes people to poverty, and forces them to incur debt or sell assets. As a result, our...

-Livemint.com In the Apr-Sep period, health insurance leaped ahead of motor insurance to lead the non-life insurance segment in India for the first time. For a business that thrives on medical uncertainty, the covid-19 pandemic has provided a shot in the arm for the health insurance industry in India. The prospect of hospitalisation due to covid-19, and high medical costs in private hospitals have driven more Indians to sign up for private...

-The Hindu For state-sponsored insurance, governments should avoid insurance companies World Bank data, in 2015, showed that nearly 65% of health-care expenditure in India is “Out of Pocket” (OoP). A report by the World Health Organisation has shown that around 3.2% of Indians would fall below the poverty line because of high OoP health expenditure. Thus, a national health insurance scheme like the Ayushman Bharat is welcome. While the principle of insuring a...

-Newsclick.inGovt is repeatedly turning to LIC for its disinvestment agenda. The insurer's NPAs have doubled since the Modi regime took over, and now there is the possibility of it bailing out debt-ridden IL&FS. Since 2014, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has spent, at least, Rs 48,000 crore so that the Narendra Modi government can meet its disinvestment targets.Meanwhile, the non-performing assets (NPAs) of the country?s largest insurer have...

-Livemint.com To stabilize crop prices and make them remunerative, the Swaminathan Commission proposed significant improvements in the implementation of MSPs Across the country, farmers are furious—and rightfully so. Four years ago, they helped bring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power, believing Narendra Modi’s claims that they would no longer suffer official neglect. But since then, conditions in agriculture have got worse. Earlier problems have worsened as farm incomes have been squeezed...