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No they won't. You aren't discounting those who already hold health insurance because it's a deduction for their tax returns. So for such people it's an investm

No they won't. You aren't discounting those who already hold health insurance because it's a deduction for their tax returns. So for such people it's an investment. You are also not discounting those who are covered by their employers group health insurance. Not to forget those people who already have enough to spend for private healthcare. Not all 1.3 billion people in India are poor who depend on government health insurance.

PeterisP 8y ago
These factors don't need to be explicitly discounted because they are far too small to matter. The number of people covered by various private group health insurance in India is something like 100 million, so it's just a 10% difference when we're talking about order-of-magnitude differences. Yes, not all 1.3 billion are poor and depend on government health insurance, but the numbers are so outrageously off that it doesn't work for 1.3 billion people; doesn't work for 1.0 billion people, doesn't work for 0.8 billion people (who are currently uncovered by other gov't subsidies including RSBY). Unless you're arguing that it applies to a tiny, tiny fraction of Indias population, the math doesn't work out, either the cost estimate or the benefits will be entirely different.
- deleted 8y ago
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- shripadk 8y ago
  Again, you are considering that all 1.3 billion or 1.0 billion or 0.8 billion people will fall ill. How can you not see that it's an unrealistic scenario? Coverage is only provided for those who fall ill. Only critical illnesses require the entirety of $7,200. The rest of the diseases are treatable in the $1 to $200 range. The government hospitals already provide free treatment for a majority of these diseases. It's the critical illness treatment which has become a burden for the government hospitals as they don't have either the equipment or the staff or the infrastructure to cater to the patients. That's where this insurance will come handy. Instead of spending $100 billion dollars bringing the government hospitals to match state of the art private hospitals just reuse the existing private hospital infrastructure and subsidize the illness instead of wasting money on infrastructure/equipment/staffing. I can't understand how this doesn't make sense? This even lessens the load on the government hospitals so they can focus their energies treating curable diseases and leave the critical illness part to be handled by private hospitals. Trust me, we can argue however much we want, but the poor of India see this and understand the significance of this move. Many poor cancer patients (especially those with mouth cancer due to smoking tobacco/chewing gutka) who couldn't get any treatment in free government hospitals due to lack of infrastructure/equipment/staffing can get themselves treated in state of the art private hospitals. And the poor are not beggars to misuse the scheme by claiming insurance for even the simplest of diseases. They will get themselves treated in government hospitals if the particular disease can be cured for free because that's where they are comfortable going (many build rapport with the government doctors too). Only if it's not possible, would they approach the private hospitals. You need to be on the ground and understand the poor of India to be able to think beyond numbers. If numbers is all you see then there is nothing further to argue about.

PeterisP 8y ago

These factors don't need to be explicitly discounted because they are far too small to matter. The number of people covered by various private group health insurance in India is something like 100 million, so it's just a 10% difference when we're talking about order-of-magnitude differences. Yes, not all 1.3 billion are poor and depend on government health insurance, but the numbers are so outrageously off that it doesn't work for 1.3 billion people; doesn't work for 1.0 billion people, doesn't work for 0.8 billion people (who are currently uncovered by other gov't subsidies including RSBY). Unless you're arguing that it applies to a tiny, tiny fraction of Indias population, the math doesn't work out, either the cost estimate or the benefits will be entirely different.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
shripadk 8y ago
Again, you are considering that all 1.3 billion or 1.0 billion or 0.8 billion people will fall ill. How can you not see that it's an unrealistic scenario? Coverage is only provided for those who fall ill. Only critical illnesses require the entirety of $7,200. The rest of the diseases are treatable in the $1 to $200 range. The government hospitals already provide free treatment for a majority of these diseases. It's the critical illness treatment which has become a burden for the government hospitals as they don't have either the equipment or the staff or the infrastructure to cater to the patients. That's where this insurance will come handy. Instead of spending $100 billion dollars bringing the government hospitals to match state of the art private hospitals just reuse the existing private hospital infrastructure and subsidize the illness instead of wasting money on infrastructure/equipment/staffing. I can't understand how this doesn't make sense? This even lessens the load on the government hospitals so they can focus their energies treating curable diseases and leave the critical illness part to be handled by private hospitals. Trust me, we can argue however much we want, but the poor of India see this and understand the significance of this move. Many poor cancer patients (especially those with mouth cancer due to smoking tobacco/chewing gutka) who couldn't get any treatment in free government hospitals due to lack of infrastructure/equipment/staffing can get themselves treated in state of the art private hospitals. And the poor are not beggars to misuse the scheme by claiming insurance for even the simplest of diseases. They will get themselves treated in government hospitals if the particular disease can be cured for free because that's where they are comfortable going (many build rapport with the government doctors too). Only if it's not possible, would they approach the private hospitals. You need to be on the ground and understand the poor of India to be able to think beyond numbers. If numbers is all you see then there is nothing further to argue about.