HEALTH INSURANCE FOR INDIA’S MISSING MIDDLE     

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Context

• NITI Aayog released a comprehensive report titled Health Insurance for India’s Missing Middle, which brings out the gaps in the health insurance coverage across the Indian population and offers solutions to address the situation.

Findings

• The Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana—a flagship scheme towards Universal Health Coverage, and State Government extension schemes—provides comprehensive hospitalization cover to the bottom 50% of the population.
• Around 20% of the population is covered through social health insurance, and private voluntary health insurance primarily designed for high-income groups.
• The remaining 30% of the population, devoid of health insurance, is termed as the “missing middle”.
• The missing middle contains multiple groups across all expenditure quintiles and is spread across both urban and rural areas.
• The report highlights the need for designing a low-cost comprehensive health insurance product for the missing middle.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1767498