Here’s how govt can ensure very affordable health insurance, including for outpatient care, for hundreds of millions of Indians who are neither poor nor rich

Countries that have managed ‘universal healthcare for free’ through taxation have three things in common. They are invariably small countries with a high tax-to-GDP ratio of more than 30% and spend more than 10% of GDP on healthcare.
India is the world’s most populous country with a tax-to-GDP ratio of 11.70% and spends 3.16% of the GDP on healthcare. The government’s contribution is 1.28% and out-of-pocket health expenditure is 1.52% of GDP.We can’t expect the government to enhance budgetary allocation to healthcare significantly.