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Budget 2019 expectations: Health insurers demand focus on out-of-pocket spending from Modi government

Health insurance companies operating in India have demanded from the Narendra Modi government to focus on this common public concern when the Indian finance minister rises in the parliament on February 1 to present the 2019 interim budget.

Budget 2019 expectations: Health insurers demand focus on out-of-pocket spending from Modi government
With a health-insurance penetration rate of only about 20 per cent, India has one of the world’s highest rates of out-of-pocket spending in healthcare. Photo source: Reuters
Written By: Asit Manohar
Updated: Tue, Jan 29, 2019
04:05 pm
New Delhi, ZeeBiz WebDesk
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Budget 2019 demands: On account of healthcare spendings going out of pocket from the public in general aka aam aadmi, the health insurance companies operating in India have demanded from the Narendra Modi government to focus on this common public concern when the Indian finance minister rises in the parliament on February 1 to present the 2019 interim budget.

Speaking on the matter Varun Gera, Founder & CEO, HealthAssure, told Zee Business online, "Healthcare in India is perched for growth with the government rolling out the biggest publicly funded healthcare plan in the world, growing global investments into tertiary care and regulations imposed to cap prices of medical devices." 

See Zee Business video below:

Varun Gera of HealthAssure went on to add, "Alongside, it’s worth noting that India currently spends a little over 1 per cent of GDP on health. With a health-insurance penetration rate of only about 20 per cent, India has one of the world’s highest rates of out-of-pocket spending in healthcare."

Shreeraj Deshpande, Principal Officer at Future Generali India Insurance told, "Medical inflation is growing at 14-16 per cent every year and the healthcare expenses of the average household can easily exceed the capacity of their pocket. We expect the government to revise the 80 D limits for Health Insurance premiums under IT Act and further reduce the GST for health insurance premiums especially for retail policies."

Hailing the Ayushman Bharat Scheme of the Modi government Pankaj Verma, Head — SME lending at SBI General Insurance told, "Levying GST on the health insurance premium is something that the government should think waving-off in coming budget."