Lok Sabha Question No. 1127 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-04
Subject: Health Insurance Scheme
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: BIJOYA CHAKRAVARTY, SUPRIYA SADANAND SULE, LAXMAN GILUWA, RAJEEV SHANKARRAO SATAV, DHANANJAY BHIMRAO MAHADIK, ABHISHEK BANERJEE, RAM TAHAL CHOUDHARY, SUNIL KUMAR MONDAL, JAYAKUMAR JAYAVARDHAN, VIRENDER KASHYAP

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE

TO BE ANSWERED ON 4 th December, 2015/Agrahayana 13, 1937 (Saka)

## DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1127

## Health Insurance Scheme

1127. SHRIMATI BIJOYA CHAKRAVARTY:

SHRI SATAV RAJEEV:

SHRI LAXMAN GILUWA:

SHRI DHANANJAY MAHADIK:

SHRI RAM TAHAL CHOUDHARY:

SHRI ABHISHEK BANERJEE:

SHRI SUNIL KUMAR MONDAL:

SHRI VIRENDER KASHYAP:

DR. J. JAYAVARDHAN:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether one fifth of India's population is covered under health insurance despite liberalisation  of  the  insurance  sector  as  per  the  report  compiled  by  the  Central Bureau of Health Intelligence and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has launched any free insurance scheme to cover each family/BPL people in the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (b) the  number  of  persons  covered  under  health  insurance  by  public  and  private insurance companies during each of the last three years and the current year;
- (d) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to cover more people under the health insurance scheme?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a)  to  (d):  As  per  information  provided  by  Insurance  Regulatory  and  Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the number of lives covered under Health insurance policies during FY 2014-15 was 28.80 Crore which is approximately 24 per cent of India's total population.

The data on number of persons covered under health insurance by non-life including standalone health insurers for the past three financial years are provided below:

## Number of persons covered under Health Insurance (Other than Personal Accident and Travel) for the past three  years   (In crore)

Public Sector

Private Sector

| FY          |   Insurance Companies |   Insurance Companies |   Total |
|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|---------|
| 2012-13     |                 12.85 |                  7.88 |   20.73 |
| 2013-14     |                 14.53 |                  7.09 |   21.62 |
| 2014-15 (P) |                 21.14 |                  7.66 |   28.8  |

P: Provisional

The "Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana" was launched on 1st October, 2007 to provide smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30000/- per annum to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families (a unit of five) in the unorganized sector. During the course of implementation, apart from BPL families, RSBY coverage has been extended to other categories  of  Unorganized  workers  viz.  Building  and  other  construction  workers, licensed  Railway  Porters,  Street  Vendors,  MGNREGA  workers  (who  have  worked  for more than 15 days during preceding financial year), Beedi Workers, Domestic Workers, Sanitations  Workers, Mine  Workers,  Rickshaw  Pullers,  Rag  Pickers  and  Auto/Taxi drivers. The scheme at present covers around 4.04 Crore across the country.

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