Navigating public health challenges in health insurance markets: a bibliometric analysis of accessibility and affordability patterns

Purpose Health-care affordability and accessibility represent as a complicated worldwide concern, creating major impediments to universal access to health care, eventually impacting individual health outcomes and economic stability. The research seeks to analyze the scholarly literature on accessibility and affordability of health insurance between 2000 and 2024 through a comprehensive scientific mapping approach. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analysis was conducted on 498 research papers based on a search strategy from Scopus database from 2000 to 2024. The study uses both R and VOSviewer to identify major authors, documents and nations while evaluating conceptual, intellectual and social systems. Findings The concept of health insurance has evolved throughout a period of time as a multidisciplinary discipline. The United States dominates in terms of publications and citations, indicating a significant role in driving global medical research. Keyword co-occurrence analysis reveals that “health services accessibility”, “healthcare cost” and “healthcare policy” are the most prominent keywords, confirming the central focus of the literature. Trend analysis indicates that inequality, COVID-19, catastrophic health expenditure and health-care disparities have emerged as rapidly growing research topics, particularly in the post-2020 period. Practical implications This research provides important insights on health insurance for policymakers, highlighting the most critical issues and emerging frontiers in this sector. By identifying the major gaps and emerging areas, it will be useful to the academic researchers to develop a future research agenda. Originality/value The research makes a substantial addition by consolidating the scattered literature in subject, highlighting the concept and issues which serves as a vital resource for informed decision-making.