J-PAL Health Insurance Project
Location
India
Sector
Government & Civil Society
Type of Investment
Grant
Project Stage
Test & Transition
Length of Investment
2020+
Investment Overview
J-PAL South Asia’s Innovations in Data and Experiments for Action (IDEA) Initiative addresses the opportunity gap that exists due to poor administrative data utilisation for policy decision making. GIF funding will enable J-PAL to create innovative partnership models with three Indian state governments, and develop a ‘data use case’ for the flagship health insurance programme to demonstrate the potential of using administrative data for policy decisions.
The Development Challenge
The large volume of administrative data that has come with widespread digitalisation has vast untapped potential for policymakers to help improve the lives of the poor, especially in India’s ‘data rich’ health sector where existing data can be leveraged systematically to inform decisions on health services. Currently, administrative data use is often limited to routine process reporting and rarely deployed for strategic planning or course correction to improve the way public services work.
The Innovation
J-PAL South Asia’s Innovations in Data and Experiments for Action (IDEA) Initiative proposes to address the opportunity gap that exists due to poor data utilisation by developing a ‘health insurance data use case’ across three Indian states to demonstrate the potential of using administrative data for decision-making. In 2018, the Indian government launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana health insurance programme to provide the poorest 40% of the population, roughly 100 million families, with access to secondary and tertiary care. Through an innovative partnership model with these Indian states, J-PAL will seek to answer key questions using existing data about resource allocation and process improvements to improve the insurance’s benefits for the poorest segments of the Indian population.
Our Investment
J-PAL will use GIF funding to test and refine their partnership approach for data-use over a two year period and will also learn how to institutionalise effective data-use practices in governments. These lessons will help J-PAL develop its approach and implementation model and be relevant for use in other sectors and geographies.
Why we invested
This innovation aligns with GIF’s priority of improving how public services work for the poor, and also works towards enhancing state capacity, which is a sub-theme of this priority. Improving public services for the poor is a particularly tricky development challenge and one that GIF is predisposed to address, given our focus on data and evidence for better decision-making. This investment will allow us to generate insights around both state capacity building and improving a health insurance programme that will improve the lives of the poor.
J-PAL Health Insurance Project in numbers
GIF Grant