Less than 20% of population covered under health insurance: Report

Despite liberalization of the insurance industry, less than one-fifth of India's population are covered under health insurance. Even among those who have some form of coverage, 67% are covered by public insurance companies, according to National Health Profile 2015, compiled by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence.

As per the separate chapter on health financing, despite a declining share of the Centre towards public health expenditure has done significantly well to provide insurance cover as compared to the private sector.

Apart from the standard health insurance, around 15.5 crore people are covered under the three Central government-funded health schemes - Central Government Health Scheme, Employees' State Insurance Scheme and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.

A low public health spending coupled with poor health insurance penetration is reflected in India's high out-of-pocket expenditure on health. In rural India, almost 80% of the out-of-pocket expenditure is on medicine, whereas in urban areas it is around 75%.

Source: indiainfoline.com