In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an ambitious plan to achieve universal health coverage in India: by covering medical expenses upto Rs 5 lakh per family for one in every three Indians. The government called the scheme Ayushman Bharat and also promised to revamp the primary health care system alongside the insurance coverage.

How has the Ayushman Bharat scheme fared? Scholars Sylvia Karpagam and Shailender Kumar Hooda join us on the podcast to examine key aspects of the program. Dr Sylvia Karpagam is a public health doctor and researcher who is part of the Right to Food and Right to Health campaigns. She is specifically interested in the regulation of the private healthcare sector and in the social determinants of health, especially caste and nutrition. Dr Shailender Kumar Hooda teaches at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi, India. He has over a decade of teaching and research experience with a specialization in the political economy of health and healthcare, health economics and policy, pharmaceutical industry, institutional economics and applied econometrics.

We will be discussing Hooda’s articles titled “Decoding Ayushman Bharat: A Political Economy Perspective” and “Health Insurance, Health Access and Financial Risk Protection.” We will be discussing Karpagam’s articles titled “Falling Through the Gaps: Women Accessing Care under Health Insurance Schemes in Karnataka” and “Critique of the Model of Universal Health Coverage in Karnataka.” Our Reading List contains insights from EPW's archive on the Ayushman Bharat.

Audio courtesy: YouTube/Narendra Modi

#15: Despite Having One of the World's Largest Food Security Nets, Why Are Indians Going Hungry?

Research Radio By Economic and Political WeeklyFeb 08, 2021