Table 1.

Summary characteristics of included studies

Serial number	Study characteristic	Summary
1.	Geographical location	Out of the 25 included studies, 10 studies were conducted nationally,14 16 18–22 24 28 35 and one was conducted in 12 cities—Bhubaneshwar, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Meerut, Patna, Jabalpur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi.38 Other studies were conducted in different states. Studies covering northern region of India were conducted in Uttar Pradesh,23 30 Haryana34 and Punjab.34 Studies covering southern region of India were undertaken in Karnataka,17 31 36 37 Andhra Pradesh,15 17 27 32 Kerala33 and Tamil Nadu.17 Remaining studies were carried out in eastern region, viz., Jharkhand,25 Bihar,23 Chhattisgarh26 29 and western region, viz., Maharashtra.27 30 32
2.	Population	Population among the included studies differed in characteristics. General population was included in nine studies.14–16 20 25–27 29 31 Around seven studies comprised of below poverty line (BPL) households.17–19 22 24 33 35 A mixed population from rural and urban households was considered in three studies.21 28 32 One study comprised of patients selected from Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) empaneled hospitals and key stakeholders.34 One study included Self-help group members or head of the households.23 One study comprised of socially excluded households focusing on Scheduled Castes, Muslims and upper caste poor.30 Two studies comprised of a mix population of BPL and above poverty line households.36 37 One study comprised of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) principal beneficiaries, empaneled private healthcare providers and officials of the schemes across 12 Indian cities.38
3.	Type of Insurance	Central government-funded health insurance (HI): about 14 studies were conducted on central government-funded HI schemes, that is, RSBY.14 18 19 22–28 30 32 34 35 One study was conducted on Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).29 Three studies were conducted on CGHS.16 24 38 Two studies were conducted on Employee State Insurance Scheme.16 24 State government funded HI: three studies each were conducted on Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme (VAS) in Karnataka31 36 37 and Rajiv Arogya Shree (RAS) in Andhra Pradesh.15 27 32 One study each reported on CHIS33 (Philip et al) and ECHS.38 Any government-funded HI: remaining other studies were generally all PFHI.17 20–22 24 28
4.	Study design	Impact evaluation including quasi-randomised designs was used in eight studies.15 16 19 29 30 32 36 37 Observational study design was used in five studies.23 25 31 33 38 Secondary data analysis was performed in 11 studies.14 17 18 20–22 24 26–28 35 Mixed method approach was used in one study.34
5.	Outcomes	Financial risk protection: the impact of RSBY on financial protection was reported by nine studies.14 16 18 19 23 25 30 32 34 The impact of different PFHI schemes (including state insurance schemes) on financial risk protection were reported by 13 studies.15 17 20–22 24 26–29 31–33 Access and utilisation of healthcare: the impact of PFHI on healthcare utilisation was reported by 16 studies, out of these eight studies assessed the impact of RSBY on healthcare utilisation.14 16 23 26 27 30 32 35 Impact of RAS was assessed by single study.32 Five studies assessed the impact of CHIS on utilisation of healthcare.20 21 24 26 33 One study evaluated the impact of PMJAY on healthcare utilisation.29 Hospitalisation rate was reported in two studies with the implementation of RAS.17 27 Two studies reported hospital utilisation rate with implementation of VAS.36 37 Willingness to pay and reduction of financial burden were reported in one study.38
6.	Methodological quality	Out of 25 studies, 3 were of moderate quality,31–33 2 weak methodological quality34 35 and remaining others were of high quality.