Insurance is a growing segment in India, but there is lot of potential and scope for improvement says the National Health Profile 2018 report. Public sector companies are the dominant force in the insurance sector, and this is what is also seen in the report.
It says that out of 4,37,457 people covered under insurance, a massive 79 per cent of them were covered by public insurers, while the remaining were accounted for by private insurers.
Along with insurance penetration, the spending on health has also witnessed an increase. The per capita public expenditure on health has increased from ₹621 in 2009-10 to ₹1,112 in 2015-16. The government has been doing its part in tackling health concerns of citizens, says the report. It mentions that due to national health programmes launched by the government, several serious communicable and non-communicable diseases have witnessed a drop in the last two decades.
However, when it comes to the centre-state share of public expenditure on health, the share of the centre has been steadily declining. In 2015-16, the ratio of centre-state was 31:69; only 2017-18 were the years in which the centre’s share showed any increase.
Another observations made by the report were that the birth, death and natural growth rate are showing a declining trend. The estimated birth rate showed a decline to 20.4 in 2016 to from 25.8 in 2000. The good news is that the death rate also witnessed a decline from 8.5 to 6.4 per 1000 people over the same period of time.
*Source: Financial Express
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