Healthcare Finance in India

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Indian Health System is underperforming relative to most global benchmarks and even compared to local neighbours. This underperformance is both on intermediate indicators such as the efficiency of resource use, quality of services, and access to them as well as outcome indicators such as health outcomes, responsiveness, financial protection, and equity. For improving the Indian health System multilevel actions are needed, which includes health financing.

Dvara Research through this new workstream tries to layout pathways to enhance health financing in India to achieve universal healthcare. The below infographic illustrates the journey envisioned by us towards universal healthcare.

This workstream also provides research support to the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reforming Indian Health Systems.

Also see

Writings

Op-ed

The kinds of advanced care that the largest Indian hospitals are best placed to offer, are needed by <0.25% of people at any point

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Given the inadequate government allocations to healthcare, we need to nudge the private sector to provide affordable primary care to consumers.

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Budgets are less than adequate. Greater efficiencies in spending will help in delivering more

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In Indian healthcare, technology has made inroads in areas like diagnostics & computer-aided surgeries, but has lagged elsewhere.

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The PMJAY is a powerful scheme with the potential for significant direct and indirect impact, writes Nachiket Mor.

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Ahead of Budget 2021, India needs to rethink its overall strategy for the investment of public funds.

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Government has multiple core roles in healthcare, including financing and stewardship. In India, large gaps remain on both fronts.

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In this post, we lay out some of the consumer-centric mechanisms to resolve demand-side (delayed care-seeking) & supply-side (improper response) issues within the health system.

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Covid-19 has exposed how ESIS and the ESIC system have failed beneficiaries; there is a need for reform involving outcome-measuring, better governance, and competition

Blog post

In this blog post, we analyse the VimoSEWA model in India, which shows the strength of community-level intervention and support

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In this blog post, we analyse the VimoSEWA model in India, which shows the strength of community-level intervention and support

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In this post, we examine the concept of managed care and attempt to understand its relevance in the Indian context.

Webinars

Reform Pathways for Healthcare Financing in India

A Dvara Research & IndiaSpend Webinar Series

Over the course of four sessions, distinguished panellists will take up some of the most pressing questions about the financing of healthcare, and suggest pathways and proposals for reforming healthcare in India that are rooted in our context and institutional abilities.

Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4

The Indian health financing landscape: what are the reform opportunities for this decade?

Monday, September 14th, 17:30 – 18:30 IST

Public finance first principles. What is the case for Government intervention in health care? What are the public goods in health care?
For private goods in health, what are the limitations of a pure OOP approach?
The importance of focusing on the quantum and effectiveness of pooled expenditures
An overview of the reform pathways for India

Recommended reading: Status of Health Systems in India at National and Subnational Levels – Hasna Ashraf & Nachiket Mor

Panellist

Moderator

Commercial health insurance: Why not pay for outcomes?

Friday, October 9th, 17:30 – 18:30 IST

Scale and reach, what segments/packages are excluded and why
Supply-side problems
Role for managed care models
International best practices that India can learn from

Recommended reading: Commercial Health Insurance in India – Status and Challenges – by Sowmini Prasad & Indradeep Ghosh

Panellist

Moderator

Social Health Insurance – The Broken Promise of Employee State Insurance (ESI)

Friday, November 27th, 16:30 – 17:45 IST

Even though ESI is a great scheme on paper, there are significant problems with its implementation and therefore its effectiveness. In this webinar, our panellists will offer their thoughts on the current state of ESI and what needs to change in order for the scheme to truly deliver on its promise. A key focus of the webinar will be to bring forward and explore the beneficiary’s perspective on ESI – a perspective that is often missing in the public discourse on ESI.

Recommended reading: Employee State Insurance Scheme – Performance and Potential Pathways for Reform – by Sowmini Prasad & Indradeep Ghosh

Panellist

Moderator

PMJAY: Getting it to punch above its (fiscal) weight

Wednesday, February 24th, 17:30 – 18:30 IST

The design and structure of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)
Comparison to other international models of publicly funded health insurance programs: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam
The capacity of the Indian state to deliver on PMJAY’s promises
Pathways for reforming PMJAY

Recommended reading: Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY): The Scheme and its Potential to Reform India’s Healthcare System – by Sowmini Prasad