Time for India to rethink health insurance as Covid rips apart safety nets

Insurance plan launched two years ago to help over 107 million people hasn't improved access to health care, say Duke University researchers.

Covid-19 related deaths in India are expected to double in the coming weeks. People across socioeconomic classes are being cremated en masse in large holes in the ground. The ordeal doesn’t even end with death. Medical bills are piling up, a burden large enough to tip working-class families into multi-generational poverty. Younger adults desperate for vaccines are effectively being forced to pay for them, while those most at risk aren’t adequately insured. The state’s threadbare safety net has all but collapsed.

In normal times, most Indians use savings, borrow and call on friends and family to pay for health care, assuming