Health Insurance: An Emerging Trend in India

Abstract

Healthcare improves health of citizens, lowers mortality rates, reduces poverty and thus boosts economic
growth. Financing healthcare is a major concern for any nation. In many countries of the western world it
is the Government that plays the major role either through tax financing or social insurance.
Unfortunately, in India the public funding is low, so the economic burden of medical expenditure falls on
private households. A well-managed health insurance system can provide hope for seeking quality
healthcare to a large number of persons. Although India has a limited experience in this sector but
liberalization of this sector and passing of the IRDA Act, 2000 has brought to the fore huge potential of
growth for this sector. It appears to be the future of the HealthCare sector in India. An attempt has been
made in this paper to analyse the pattern and trace the trends in growth of Health Insurance sector in
India.