Linking women’s incomes and healthcare, Pg9

Key Highlights:

• India is undergoing dual transformations: a rise in female labour force participation and an epidemiological shift towards chronic diseases.
• New research suggests a strong connection between increased women's income and improved public health outcomes.
• A 2018 reform of the Employees’ Provident Fund reduced mandatory contributions for newly employed women from 12% to 8%.
• This reform led to an unexpected increase in take-home salary for these women.
• Female-led households benefiting from this policy reduced overall healthcare expenditure by approximately 11.6%.
• This reduction was accompanied by decreased spending on medicines and doctor consultations, while investment in nutrition and physical fitness increased.

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Detailed Insights:

• Traditional measures of healthcare progress, such as hospital numbers or insurance coverage, often overlook broader health determinants.
• Schemes like Ayushman Bharat provide financial protection, but health can also improve through preventive measures and lifestyle changes.
• The Employees’ Provident Fund reform created a natural experiment to observe how women allocate additional income.
• The reform specifically applied to newly employed women in the formal sector for their initial three years of employment.
• The findings indicate that women use additional income to prioritize preventive health, reorganizing household spending.
• This aligns with economic research showing that income directed to women often leads to greater investments in education, nutrition, and child well-being.
• Women's economic empowerment can reduce future reliance on healthcare services and alleviate pressure on India's already strained healthcare system.
• The study suggests that policies enhancing women's economic agency can effectively function as health policies, contributing to India's demographic dividend.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP): The proportion of working-age women who are employed or actively seeking employment.
• Epidemiological Transition: A shift in a population's disease patterns from infectious diseases to chronic, non-communicable diseases.
• Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE): Direct payments made by individuals for healthcare services at the point of receiving care.
• Demographic Dividend: The economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure.