'Having the card makes us feel worthless': the negative value of government-funded health insurance in India.
Anthropol Med
; 30(4): 380-393, 2023 Dec.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38299487
ABSTRACT
Since the 2000s, hundreds of government-funded health insurance (GFHI) schemes were introduced in India. These schemes are meant to prevent poorer households from incurring catastrophic health expenditures. Through GFHIs, policy-makers want to mobilize the decision-making powers of private consumers in a liberalized healthcare market. Patients are called upon to act as 'co-creators' of healthcare value by optimizing supply through demand. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with insurance users in South India, we argue that GFHIs fail because people experience the value of insurance in drastically different ways that only partly overlap with how the policy assumes they value insurance. In addition, the hollow promises of health coverage can be experienced as so frustrating that signing up for health insurance actually makes people feel devalued.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Gastos em Saúde
/
Seguro Saúde
Tipo de estudo:
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Anthropol Med
Assunto da revista:
ANTROPOLOGIA
/
MEDICINA
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article