Health insurance reduces mortality among Indian poor
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Washington, Oct 9 (IANS) An Indian government scheme to provide health insurance for catastrophic illness to households below the poverty line (BPL) has lowered both mortality rates and out-of-pocket expenses for the residents in Karnataka, a World Bank-funded study shows.
The programme called the Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme (VAS) – funded by the World Bank Group and implemented by the Karnataka government – was evaluated led by Neeraj Sood, professor and director of research at the University of South Carolina’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
The evaluation, including more than 82,000 households, found that the risk of dying from conditions covered by the insurance dropped by 64 percent for residents with the insurance.
Source: IANS Live (link opens in a new window)
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