Government health insurance for people below poverty line in India: quasi-experimental evaluation of insurance and health outcomes.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To evaluate the effects of a government insurance program covering tertiary care for people below the poverty line in Karnataka, India, on out-of-pocket expenditures, hospital use, and mortality.

Design

Geographic regression discontinuity study.

Setting

572 villages in Karnataka, India.

Participants

31,476 households (22,796 below poverty line and 8680 above poverty line) in 300 villages where the scheme was implemented and 28,633 households (21,767 below poverty line and 6866 above poverty line) in 272 neighboring matched villages ineligible for the scheme.

Intervention

A government insurance program (Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme) that provided free tertiary care to households below the poverty line in about half of villages in Karnataka from

SUBMITTER: Sood N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4161676 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature