Why India's public health insurance doesn't work as well as it should

Three years since the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana began, it is yet to meet one of its main objectives

Three years after the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY or PM-JAY) was launched in September 2018, the scheme has been unable to meet one of its most important objectives--of providing 'cashless and paperless' access to healthcare for patients at the point of care.

The "world's largest government funded healthcare program" was a step towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the government said, and would provide quality health services to eligible patients and protect them from financial hardship.

However, as a study from Chhattisgarh has found, PM-JAY has failed to plug the shortcomings of previous publicly funded health insurance (PFHI)