Health care financing through insurance remains at 15-18%, indicating significant room for this to increase. In total, 65% of his medical bills are for outpatients, and only 35% for his inpatients, but the majority of insurance coverage is for hospitalizations.
With the government’s introduction of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Ayushman Bharat, the tier 2 and tier 3 cities started to develop medical infrastructure and the funding mechanism got there. Today, his medical bill is Rs 47 lakh, almost double from his pre-pandemic spending of Rs 2.7 lakh. Health care financing through insurance remains at 15-18%, indicating significant room for this to increase. Overall, 65% of medical expenses are outpatient and only 35% are inpatient, yet the majority of insurance coverage is during hospitalization.
The pandemic has brought healthcare and technology together through remote consultations, telemedicine, and other digital activities. As a result, insurers not only started covering technology, they started using this technology to reach out to their customers.
Work done by industry associations and regulators has resulted in data standardization and unification of data acquisition. However, it must be recognized that insurers’ health insurance portfolios are still in the red. We know that a losing portfolio cannot continue to grow. Hospitals, health care providers and doctors all need to work together to achieve the goal of providing quality and affordable coverage for insurance for all citizens.
Watch Dr. Shreeraj Deshpande, Head of Health Business, SBI General Insurance, keynote at Businessworld’s 6th Healthcare Excellence Summit and Awards on the Future of Health Insurance in India.
