The Utility and Perception of Health Insurance Among Healthcare Providers in Delhi: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background & Objectives Understanding health insurance implementation from the healthcare providers’ perspective is critical to improve delivery of care. Our aim was to evaluate the utility and perception of health insurance among healthcare providers. Methods A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Delhi, India. After ethics approval from the institute, healthcare providers in the hospital who provided direct care to the patients for at least a year were identified and verbally consented. Self-developed validated study questionnaires were distributed to collect the data from the participants. Descriptive statistics were used to report findings. Results Majority of the responders were in the age group of 31-40 years (33.67%). 56% knew healthcare is a human right in India, and 85.71% understood health insurance as a binding contract. Private companies were favoured (42.85%) as insurance providers. 88% found premium rates high, and 61.22% preferred insured patient treatment. Everyone supported a better national health insurance scheme, with 85.71% believing it helps the poor. Only 27.55% thought 100% coverage in India was possible. Interpretation & Conclusions Healthcare providers provided valuable insight into the practical problems of healthcare insurance implementation and these factors can be used to further improve health insurance schemes.