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!«
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, KarnatakaKaruna 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, KarnatakaThe 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.