Impact of Publicly Funded Health Insurance Scheme on Risk Coping Strategies against Health Expenses in Kerala

The aim of the paper is to determine whether publicly funded insurance schemes have significantly enabled poor households to come out from expensive coping strategies such as borrowing and sale of assets in the State of Kerala, India. This cross-sectional study used data collected from a primary survey in the Palakkad district of Kerala. Duration of the study is from January 2018 to January 2019. A total sample of 408 poor households including both insured and uninsured were collected in a primary survey using a structured schedule. Probit and log-linear regressions were employed to determine the impact of insurance coverage for the poor on risk coping strategies such as borrowing and sale of assets. Probit regression results showed that uninsured households have around 32% higher probability of borrowing (P value-0.003) compared to insured households whereas sale of assets as a coping strategy did not yield any significant results. Results showed a negative significant relationship between insurance coverage and risk coping strategy of borrowing. The amount and probability of borrowing were found significantly lower among insured households for inpatient care. But the sale of assets did not have any significant impact from the insurance coverage.