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>> The health care plan, part of the government’s 2018-19 budget presented on Thursday, would offer 100 million families up to 500,000 rupees, or about $7,860,

>> The health care plan, part of the government’s 2018-19 budget presented on Thursday, would offer 100 million families up to 500,000 rupees, or about $7,860, of coverage each year. Thats roughly $800B dollars, or over 30% of India's GDP. What am I missing? Most people won't participate? EDIT: according to the article, the Finance Ministry has allocated $314 million (or 4 hundredths of a percent of the theoretical max total benefit). As in, the funding they acknowledge is non-existent.

ucaetano 9y ago
That's "up to", my guess is that most families will only use a small fraction of that, especially because services might not be available or covered.
shubhamjain 9y ago
Providing coverage doesn't mean that everyone would be availing the full amount every year. That's the fundamental principle of insurance business.
shripadk 9y ago
Quoting from the article: As part of the budget proposal, Mr. Jaitley said the government would levy a surtax that would raise about $1.7 billion a year specifically for health care programs.
govg 9y ago
Well, the idea behind offering insurance is that you typically don't need to account for everyone claiming it at the same time.
randcraw 9y ago
500M people times $7860/yr is $3.93 trillion (the max possible coverage). But if only $314M is authorized, the average person will receive only 314M/500M, or about 63 cents.
- shripadk 9y ago
  That's not how you calculate when it comes to insurance. You can't divorce life from maths. In your calculations you are assuming 500 million people will all fall ill at the same time and each will claim the full $7860 for the year which is next to impossible. In my opinion, $314 million is more than enough for now unless India is struck by an epidemic.
allpratik 9y ago
nothing else, this is just another election carrot. The whole point was to make headlines. India giving health benefits to 500M!

ucaetano 9y ago

That's "up to", my guess is that most families will only use a small fraction of that, especially because services might not be available or covered.

shubhamjain 9y ago

Providing coverage doesn't mean that everyone would be availing the full amount every year. That's the fundamental principle of insurance business.

shripadk 9y ago

Quoting from the article: As part of the budget proposal, Mr. Jaitley said the government would levy a surtax that would raise about $1.7 billion a year specifically for health care programs.

govg 9y ago

Well, the idea behind offering insurance is that you typically don't need to account for everyone claiming it at the same time.

randcraw 9y ago

500M people times $7860/yr is $3.93 trillion (the max possible coverage). But if only $314M is authorized, the average person will receive only 314M/500M, or about 63 cents.

shripadk 9y ago
That's not how you calculate when it comes to insurance. You can't divorce life from maths. In your calculations you are assuming 500 million people will all fall ill at the same time and each will claim the full $7860 for the year which is next to impossible. In my opinion, $314 million is more than enough for now unless India is struck by an epidemic.

allpratik 9y ago

nothing else, this is just another election carrot. The whole point was to make headlines. India giving health benefits to 500M!