Study Findings from Delhi Technological University Update Knowledge in Health Insurance (An Examination of Inter-State Variation in Utilization of Healthcare Services, Associated Financial Burden and Inequality: Evidence from Nationally …): Health Insurance

2024 MAR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on health insurance is the subject of a new report. According to news reporting from New Delhi, India, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “This study examines the health care utilization pattern, associated financial catastrophes, and inequality across Indian states to understand the subnational variations and aid the policy makers in this regard.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Delhi Technological University: “Data from recent National Sample Survey (2017-2018), titled, “Household Social Consumption: Health,” covering 113,823 households, was employed in the study. Descriptive statistics, Erreygers concentration index (CI), and recentered influence function decomposition were applied in the study. We found that, in India, 7 percent of households experienced catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and 1.9 percent of households were pushed below poverty line due to out-of-pocket expenditure on hospitalization. Notably, outpatient care was more burdensome (CHE: 12.1%; impoverishment: 4%). Substantial interstate variations were observed, with high financial burden in poorer states. Utilization of health care services from private health care providers was pro-rich (hospitalization CI 0.31; outpatient CI 0.10), while the occurrence of CHE incidence was pro-poor (hospitalization CI -0.10; outpatient CI -0.14).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Education level, economic status, health insurance, and area of residence contributed significantly to inequalities in utilization of health care services from private providers and financial burden. The high financial burden of seeking health care necessitates the need to increase public health spending and strengthen public health infrastructure. Also, concerted efforts directed towards increasing awareness about health insurance and introducing comprehensive health insurance products (covering both inpatient and outpatient services) are imperative to augment financial risk protection in India.”

For more information on this research see: An Examination of Inter-State Variation in Utilization of Healthcare Services, Associated Financial Burden and Inequality: Evidence from Nationally Representative Survey in India. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services, 2024. The publisher for International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services is SAGE Publications.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/27551938241230761.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Aashima, University School of Management and Entrepreneurship, Delhi Technological University, New Delhi, India. Additional authors for this research include Rajesh Sharma.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the author of this research: Rajesh Sharma (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7468-1249).

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