Only 27 per cent of Indians have health insurance coverage, revealed a joint report by FICCI and KPMG. The study titled 'Health Savings Account In India' reflects the extremely low penetration of health insurance.
Out of the 135 crore people in India, only about 35 crore people are insured, while 100 crore Indian people have no cover against the spiralling medical costs. The gravity of the situation can be understood in the words of Antony Jacob, Co-Chair at FICCI Health Insurance Committee.
He said that, "Healthcare costs today are going up by the day due to lifestyle diseases in particular and the only way the gap between rising healthcare costs and affordability can be bridged is if the insurance sector develops a sustainable and viable mechanism.”
Most of the health coverage includes institutional treatment, and the area of outpatient treatment such as consultation fees, diagnostics and medicine expenses remains untargeted.
As per Shashwat Sharma, Partner and Head, Insurance, KPMG in India, "Currently, 73 per cent of the population does not have access to pre-financed instruments for healthcare leading to 90 per cent of private sector expenditure being done through Out of Pocket spends."
With the medical inflation at 15%, FICCI & KPMG suggest Health Savings Account (HSA) as an option for creating a corpus to meet the future healthcare needs. This can be monitored by a government nominated body or privately managed by insurers with centralised fund management.
Given the real need for an all-inclusive solution, HSA can help bring Indian population under the umbrella of health insurance.
*Source: Hindustan Times
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