India's Health Financing Crisis and the Ayushman Bharat Scheme as a PPP Response

India's rapid economic growth is challenged by a health financing crisis that has been marked by a typically high out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), causing limited financial protection, inequality and access to health services among the poorer populations. While the flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme intends to bridge the gap, there still exist a lot of institutional barriers that have blocked the scheme from fulfilling its objectives and outcomes. The OOPE remains high, while the missing middle is a problem within the section of society who are not poor enough to qualify for subsidized healthcare and are unable to access quality healthcare. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of the Ayushman Bharat scheme through a comparative policy analysis. The paper compares the Ayushman Bharat schemes with the policy structures in 4 other countries, namely Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico. The paper finds its theoretical foundation in evolutionary theory while its methodological framework depends on the idea of critical multiplism. The paper deploys the use of quantitative comparative analysis as well as index-based comparison along with Callaway & Sant'Anna (2021) difference-indifferences with multiple time periods to understand the efficacy of a PPP model on the longer run.