Strengthening Micro Health Insurance Units for the Poor in India

»Strengthening Micro Health Insurance Units for the Poor in India - Better Health through more Equity in the Access to Health Care!«

Micro Insurance Academy launched

As a tangible outcome of the project the Micro Insurance Academy (www.microinsuranceacademy.org) has opened its doors in Delhi. The MIA is dedicated to evidence-based studies, training and advisory services for micro insurance units serving the poor. The Micro Insurance Academy develops and offers capacity building for successful implementation of micro insurance.

Myths and realities regarding health insurance for the poor

An article published in Economic and Political Weekly captures in a nutshell the myths and realities in health insruance for the poor in India. The article, written by the project's lead expert Prof. David Dror, confronts prevailing myths in India with evidence from this project's survey. The article can be downloaded here.

Developing Pro-Poor Health Insurance in India - An International Conference on Micro Health Insurance

A Conference for Community Organizations and Policy Makers took place at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on November 1st and 2nd 2006. The aim of the conference was to disseminate new information on the contribution of community health financing toward low-cost health insurance for poor and rural population segments in India.
Find more information here. [Download brochure.] A docmentation will follow soon; presentations can be downloaded in the programme section.

President Dr. Abdul Kalam supports pro-needy health insurance

His Excellency Dr. Abdul Kalam granted an audience to members of the project team on 30 October 2006. The President expressed his support for the development of pro-needy health insurance. The president said that the future of development activities, notably health insurance in rural areas, lies in integrating them into community structures.

Workshops with Micro Insurance Partners

Patna, 14.10.2006. In a one day workshop the project presented in detail the results of the household survey to its microinsurance partner NIDAN. About thirty participants, mainly the NGO’s district coordinators responsible for implementing the insurance programme, took part in the workshop. After eight hours of workshop and intensive discussion the project handed over the written report to its partner.

Bangalore, 18.10.2006. The project presented the findings of the research conducted and its implications for Yeshasvini Trust to the trustees of the health insurance. The research report and the case study conducted in 2005 and published in the ILO series were also officially handed over.

Mysore, 22.10.2006. The one day workshop with Karuna Trust was held on Diwali-Sunday at Karuna’s Technology Resource Centre in Mysore. The results of the research and its implications for Karuna Trust’s insurance operations were discussed in a relaxed atmosphere. A real Happy-Diwali-Sunday.

Madurai, 25.10.2006. It was DHAN's training centre where trustees and management of DHAN's mutual insurance activities and members of the project met to discuss the research results in detail. In interesting and enlightening discussions views were shared and common conclusions drawn. A successful workshop on micro health insurance.

Pune, 27.10.2006. Just about one month ago the last data collection was completed within BAIF’s target group: CHAT. CHAT is the project’s participatory tool to enable whole communities to choose their preferred benefit package. These results have been presented to BAIF’s insurance committee members and staff – among them BAIF’s president – just as well as the results of the household survey.

Pune, 28.10.2006. In a one day workshop with intensive and productive discussion the project presented its research findings to its partners organized in UpLift health. Representatives of the mutuals linked to UpLift and of their staff participated in the last of the six workshops the project conducted jointly with its partners in October.

Cross Cultural Study Period a full success!

With an cross cultural study group the analysis of the household survey conducted by this project started and this study group was an extraordinary event itself: 30 student researchers from India, The Netherlands and Germany together with their supervisors spent four intensive weeks on getting first insights out of this data. The Indian partner in this effort and beyond is the Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) which also hosted most of the events. Well reputed national and international experts and high ranked Indian officials participated in this effort; committed to the idea of developing health insurance for groups which currently do not have access to the same two further experts decided to help speeding up the analytical work: Ruth Koren, an expert from Tel Aviv University (Israel), and Marion Danis from the National Institutes of Health (USA).
Further information for the media can be found here.

Two Case Studies are published!

Two Case Studies about the Partner-Microhealthinsurances Karuna Trust and Yeshasvini Trust are published and are downloadable.

Karuna Trust, Karnataka

Karuna Trust is an NGO that has been working successfully on health and development issues for nearly two decades. In 2002, Karuna Trust, in a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), decided to implement a pilot health insurance scheme for its target population. The non-governmental organization (NGO) collaborated with the state-owned National Insurance Company (NIC) in designing a health insurance product that complements the public healthcare infrastructure and compensates for some of its weaknesses.Karuna Trust acts as an agent for NIC. The insurance product compensates the insured for the loss of income in case of hospitalization at a public health facility. Furthermore, a drug fund was set up to supply medicines that are unavailable in public facilities. People with income around the poverty line receive treatment in public health facilities free-of-charge. A tight network between the insurance scheme and the public infrastructure has evolved.

Yeshasvini Trust, Karnataka

The Yeshasvini Cooperative Farmers Health Scheme is a young but incredibly successful microinsurance scheme in Karnataka. Having started in 2003 with 1.6 million insured right away, it covered 2.2 million lives in its second year of operation, but in the third year it dropped to 1.45 million members after doubling the premium.This (still) amazing success is possible through a tight partnership with the cooperative sector enabled through the Karnataka Department of Cooperation. The department used its influence to encourage cooperative societies to market the product actively. The marketing strategy applied by the societies’ secretaries varies: while most convince their members to join, a few simply enrolled their members.

May we introduce ourselves?

WE are a consortium of not for profit research and business organizations sharing a common goal: help to establish health insurance for the poor in India using microinsurance. Based on RESEARCH on microhealthinsurance we develop recommendations which will be used to TRAIN people involved in microhealthinsurance today and in the future to contribute to preparing the ground for new insurance schemes. We will COMMUNICATE our activities and findings in order to have our work constantly reviewed and stimulated by discussion. Read more about the project.

You can download a brief project presentation here.

What is microinsurance?

Microinsurance is a form of health, life or property insurance, which offers limited protection at a low contribution (hence “micro”). It is aimed at poor sections of the population and designed to help them cover themselves collectively against risks (hence “insurance”). Normally, microinsurance schemes are linked to associations (besides non-governmental organizations for instance trade unions, religious congregations and hospitals), whose main area of work puts them in direct contact with the target groups. They may, but must not necessarily, act as the insurance provider: in many cases, they have transferred the risks of the insurance business to a professional insurer.

The project is kindly suported by the European Commission within the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme (ECCP). You can find more information on it here.