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We report on a large randomized controlled trial of hospital insurance for above-poverty-line Indian households. Households were assigned to free insurance, sale of insurance, sale plus cash transfer, or control. To estimate spillovers, the fraction of households offered insurance varied across villages. The opportunity to purchase insurance led to 59.91% uptake and access to free insurance to 78.71% uptake. Access increased insurance utilization. Positive spillover effects on utilization suggest learning from peers. Many beneficiaries were unable to use insurance, demonstrating hurdles to expanding access via insurance. Across a range of health measures, we estimate no significant impacts on health.
Authors
University of Chicago
Research Fellow University College London
Gabriella is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and in the Department of Social Science at UCL.
Anup Malani
Phoebe Holtzman
Kosuke Imai
Cynthia Kinnan
Morgen Miller
Shailender Swaminathan
Bartosz Woda
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2021.4721
- Publisher
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
Suggested citation
Conti, G et al. (2021). Effect of health insurance in India: a randomized controlled trial. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/effect-health-insurance-india-randomized-controlled-trial (accessed: 25 April 2024).
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