**20.1. Introduction to insurance**

India has an expenditure of 1.5 lakh crore on availability of insulin preparations to the general public, and yet many people are unable to afford the medication required.

Since majority of India's population is not in the upper or upper middle class, a major hurdle is faced by the health sector in order to keep the physical quality of life index (PQLI) of the population in check. To ensure that the money spent on health necessities by the country is balanced out with the rise in the demand of medication by people who cannot afford it, the government introduced health insurance into the country. Ironically, only a small portion of individuals are making use of this advantage and a majority of the population have probably never even heard of the term insurance!

Based on the age, type of diabetes and various other factors, the government targeted certain groups of people to make sure that the insurance scheme is most favourable to them.

Diabetes is an uphill battle for those that suffer from it, and their providers. Medical expenses and the complications that may occur for diabetics are far more than those for nondiabetics. It is a major struggle in the present world, but the new health insurance schemes offered by the government should ease a little bit of the pressure.

As mentioned before, awareness must be spread by the government and those employed in the health sector via medical camps. In this modern era, everyone is hooked onto at least one type of social media platform.

Therefore, spreading the word on various social media is a great step in the right direction and must be implemented more extensively.

The amount of awareness and utilisation of these insurance schemes among the population have a direct correlation to diminished expenditure from the diabetics.

This way, many lives that are taken due to the mere absence of medication can be avoided and even diabetics among the economically unstable can lead to a better life.

#### **20.2. Insurance schemes**

A few government-implemented health insurance schemes in India are:


There are also several private sector insurance companies offering health insurance, such as:

**References**

187-201

Disease Reports. 1995;**1**:1-12

Diabetes. 1981;**30**:119-121

Association. 1980;**244**:2641-2644

betics. Diabetes. 1974;**23**:708-712

Diabetologia. 1998;**41**:1241-1248

1983;**286**:926-928

Infection and Immunity. 1978;**21**:425-429

Hormone and Metabolic Research. 1998;**30**:158-161

[1] Deresinski S. Infections in the diabetic patient: Strategies for the clinician. Infectious

Insulin – Overview, Infections and Benefits of Immunization and Insurance

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81346

33

[2] Carton JA, Maradona JA, Nuno FJ, Fernandez-Alvarez R, Perez-Gonzalez F, Asensi V. Diabetes mellitus and bacteraemia: A comparative study between diabetic and non-

[3] Lederman MM, Schiffman GA, Rodman HM. Pneumococcal immunization in adults.

[4] Beam TRJ, Crigler ED, Goldman JR, Schifmann G. Antibody response to polyvalent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in diabetics. Journal of the American Medical

[5] LiVolti S, Caruso Nicoletti M, Biazzo F, Sciacca A, Mandara G, Mancuso M, et al. Hyporesponsiveness to intradermal administration of hepatitis B vaccine in insulin dependent

[6] Moutschen MP, Scheen AJ, Lefebvre PJ. Impaired immune responses in diabetes mellitus: Analysis of the factors and mechanisms involved in relevance to the increased susceptibility of diabetic patients to specific infections. Diabetes & Metabolism. 1992;**18**:

[7] Casey JI, Heeter BJ, Klyshevich KA.Impaired response of lymphocytes of diabetic subjects to antigen of *Staphylococcus aureus*. The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 1977;**136**:495-501 [8] Maccuish AC, Urbaniak SJ, Campbell CJ, Duncan LJP, Irvine W. Phytohemagglutinin transformation and circulating lymphocyte subpopulations in insulin-dependent dia-

[9] Plouffe JF, Silva J, Fekety FRJ, Allen JL. Cell-mediated immunity in diabetes mellitus.

[10] Vergani D, Johnston C, B-Abdullah N, Barnett AH. Low serum C4 concentrations: An inherited predisposition to insulin dependent diabetes. British Medical Journal.

[11] Mysliwska J, Zorena K, Bakowska A, Skuratowicz-Kubica A, Mysliwski A. Significance of tumor necrosis factor-α in patients with long-standing type-1 diabetes mellitus.

[12] Pickup JC, Crook MA. Is type II diabetes mellitus a disease of the innate immune system.

[13] Zozulinska D, Majchrzak A, Sobieska M, Wiktorowicz K, Wierusz-Wysocka B. Serum interleukin-8 level is increased in diabetic patients. Diabetologia. 1999;**42**:117-118 [14] Mooradian AD, Reed RL, Meredith KE, Scuderi P. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor

and IL1α and IL-1β in diabetic patients. Diabetes Care. 1991;**14**:63-65

diabetic patients. The European Journal of Medicine. 1992;**1**:281-287

diabetes mellitus. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1998;**78**:54-57


which are all diabetic safe. They all offer health care insurance services to the people of our country.
