Can a Universal Public Health Insurance Policy Dent Vulnerability to Poverty? Empirical Evidence from Rural India

Sunil Khosla and Pradyot Ranjan Jena
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Sunil Khosla: Sunil Khosla (corresponding author) is an Assistant Professor at the VIT-AP School of Social Sciences and Humanities (VISH), VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India. E-mail: sunilkhosla1993@gmail.com
Pradyot Ranjan Jena: Pradyot Ranjan Jena is a Professor at the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore, Karnataka, India. E-mail: pradyotjena@nitk.edu.in

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2024, vol. 18, issue 3-4, 255-281

Abstract: Idiosyncratic shocks, mainly health shocks, are common among rural households in developing countries, and as a result, many non-poor households fall into poverty and poor households remain poor. This study investigates the impact of a universal public health insurance policy, namely Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), on household vulnerability to poverty (VtP) in rural India. Using 17,468 national-level household data, household VtP has been estimated using feasible generalised least squares (FGLS), and the impact of a health insurance policy on household VtP has been investigated using propensity score matching (PSM) and endogenous switching regression (ESR). FGLS estimates show that VtP is found to be 33 per cent compared to a currently classified poverty headcount rate of 27 per cent. PSM and ESR results indicate that access to RSBY significantly reduces household VtP, especially in less developed states. JEL codes: I00, I13, I15, I18, I30, I32, I38, I39

Keywords: Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana; Vulnerability to poverty; Health shocks; Propensity-score matching; Impact evaluation; Health insurance; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:mareco:v:18:y:2024:i:3-4:p:255-281

DOI: 10.1177/00252921241308210

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