Washington: An Indian government scheme to provide health insurance for catastrophic illness to households below the poverty line (BPL) has lowered both mortality rates and out-of-pocket expenses for the residents in Karnataka, a World Bank-funded study shows.

The programme called the Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme (VAS) - funded by the World Bank Group and implemented by the Karnataka government - was evaluated led by Neeraj Sood, professor and director of research at the University of South Carolina's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.