Economic Burden of CKD Among the Beneficiaries of a State-Run Insurance Scheme

Abstract

Since the adoption of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), there has been a series of health insurance schemes launched across the country. All these schemes aimed at achieving UHC, mainly by providing financial risk protection to the respective citizens who are deprived by poverty. Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (TNCMCHIS) is one such policy reform launched to provide free of cost quality health care services to its beneficiaries. Through this community based longitudinal study, we aimed to see the economic burden of CKD among the beneficiaries by estimating the Out of Pocket Expenditures recorded by them for a period of six months in the dairies given to them. The study results provide an evidence that although the beneficiaries had OOPE, the catastrophic effects of OOPE was not present in majority of them, thus showing the role of scheme in reducing the economic burden of ill-health among the beneficiaries.

Keywords

• catastrophic health expenditures
• financial risk protection
• government financed health insurance schemes
• tamil nadu chief ministers comprehensive health insurance scheme
• policy reforms
• universal health coverage