Interventions to Improve Child Utilization of Government Health Insurance in Rajasthan

The Government of Rajasthan (GoR) launched the BSBY program in 2015 to increase equity in health care access, utilization, and outcomes. The program pays hospitals to provide free secondary and tertiary care to poor households. Thanks to a strong partnership with GoR, the research team was able to obtain and conduct analyses of claims data since program inception. Based on analyses, the researchers found that hospitals charge patients substantial amounts for care that should be free, and that service utilization is substantially lower among young girls than young boys. In the pilot phase, the researchers aimed to build on existing partnership with the GoR to 1) better understand the reasons for low utilization by children, and girls in particular, to design targeted interventions, 2) assess the feasibility and potential of different methods to strengthen hospital monitoring to reduce supply side leakages, and 3) test effective and low-cost data collection methods.

This pilot project is now closed, after receiving add-on funding from CaTCH to conduct descriptive work to understand the impact of the nationwide lockdown in India on routine immunization and dialysis care in Rajasthan. The researchers are now collaborating with the government to cross-randomize a demand side intervention to increase take-up among children and a supply side intervention to reduce patient charges due to leakage at the hospital level.