The evolution of health insurance in India and China

Health insurance in rapidly developing countries such as India and China needs to be segmented. One challenge is that the main advantage of health insurance for a family is the financial protection the insurance provides, which may trade off against public policy goals of increasing access, since greater access means higher premiums relative to the value of health benefits. As India and China continue on their path to development, they may increasingly face the problem of providing drug benefits, whose cost is difficult to control or constrain, especially in a setting where the country is producing for the world market.