Only 1.2 per cent people covered under health insurance scheme

Patna, Oct 8 (UNI) For want of proper knowledge and informations only 1.2 per cent of Indians are covered under health scheme against 84 per cent in America.

Max New York Life insurance executive vice-president Prashant Tripathi said here yesterday that a joint survey conducted recently by his company, in collaboration with National Council of Applied Economic Research in the country, found that a major portion of the domestic income was spent on health. Even after this fact only 1.2 per cent of population in India was covered under health scheme.

He said that 63,00,16 families living in 342 towns and 2000 villages were surveyed during which it was found that only 32 per cent of the people were prepared to meet health expenditure, with 68 per cent being at the mercy of God. ''70 per cent meet health related expenditure from their pocket,'' he said.

He said 12 per cent of the families had some serious ailments.

He added that of Rs 41,00,84 average family income, Rs 12,418 was being spent annually on health related problems in Bihar. He said it had been projected that 60 per cent of heart patients in the world would be from India by the year 2010 and in such a situation the people should be apprised of the advantages and facilities of health insurance scheme.

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