Reform Pathways for
Healthcare Financing in India

If the desired outcomes of a properly functioning healthcare system are good health outcomes, customer satisfaction, and adequate risk protection, then the Indian healthcare system is performing very poorly. The health status of Indians, relative to other developing countries, is below par. Health expenditures are skewed heavily towards out-of-pocket expenditures, and this translates into large socioeconomic inequalities in healthcare provision. Where services are available, they are generally of low quality. Middle- and low-income households are the most disadvantaged by these failings, and neither the state nor the market appears to be effective in closing these gaps. The objective of this webinar series will be to explore one of the “control knobs” for reforming the healthcare system in India that has not received adequate attention, and that is the financing of healthcare.

To this end, we can provide anonymised household data of a financial services provider focused on remote rural geographies in India. This customer database has rich information on demographic and economic parameters along with the historical data on uptake and usage of financial instruments offered by the provider. The provider covers approximately 400,000 clients spread over more than 200 branches across three Indian states.