subject: Will Reforms Lead to Affordable Health Insurance? [print this page] Will Reforms Lead to Affordable Health Insurance?
Health insurance is taken by people because they expect the health care costs to rise significantly in future which might become out of reach for them. They expect that health insurance will cover them for the most likely and emergency medical expenses without overburdening their pockets. But, with increasing costs of the medical health care, the insurance companies are themselves hiking their premiums. This makes one wonder whether the insurance itself will become expensive enough to be availed of. Or, will the authorities take steps for providing the affordable health insurance?
The insurance reforms are on the anvil. These are long overdue since the system has become accustomed to playing the way insurance companies want. Do the benefits of the insurance policies reach where they are require the most? Actually, it is the people with some disease or health condition, or the people in their old age, or the people in the risky occupations who require the health insurance more than any other person. And, ironically, these very people were denied the insurance benefits till the Supreme Court held that such an action on the part of a public company was arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional. So, now the insurance companies cannot refuse insurance on grounds of past medical history but even in those situations, the companies raise the insurance premiums exorbitantly. This makes affordable health insurance a pipe dream for many.
Affordability of health insurance is related to the income status of the people as well as to the awareness of its benefits. Most of the insurance premiums come from people from their out-of-pocket expenses. The lower income strata cannot afford it. To make the benefits of affordable health insurance reach this segment of population, the government has adopted the Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) approach. The private hospitals may be providing the best medical facilities but they are increasingly becoming very expensive. To make health insurance affordable it is also imperative that the risings costs of medical care are curtailed. This will happen with larger participation of the government and robustness of the health care infrastructure in other parts of the country.
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