Promotion of Health Insurance Services for Financing Health Care Expenditure in Odisha

Health care and financing health care expenditure in an under developed state like odisha is a big challenge. The status of health care in the state of Odisha is not well in comparison to other states in India despite of the reform process started early in the mid 1990’s. It is required to fulfill the financing needs of health care expenditure of households. There are several initiatives taken by the government and facilitating agencies in the shape of various health insurance schems like voluntary, mandatory and community health insurance schemes. The study examines the current trend and progress of health insurance sevices prevail in India Vis-à-vis Odisha and to evaluate the prmotion of health insurance services in Odisha which is required to meet the health care expenditure of households. This study is generally based on secondary data collected from various annual reports of regulating agencies like RBI, IRDA along with Economic Survey of Odisha and India. A comparative study is prepared to know the public spending on health care among states in India along with state gross direct premium from health insurance from last few years. The finding shows that the status of health insurance services in Odisha shows an increasing trend in health care reforms and promotion of health insurance services though it is not at all comparable with that of developing states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu etc. The study suggested that there should be a public-private partnership to promote health insurance services in odisha in order to reach the target of health care inclusion. Health Insurance can became a very useful option to meet the health care financing needs of households across all states in India.