Microinsurance: innovations in low-cost health insurance.
Microinsurance--low-cost health insurance based on a community, cooperative, or mutual and self-help arrangements-can provide financial protection for poor households and improve access to health care. However, low benefit caps and a low share of premiums paid as benefits--both designed to keep these arrangements in business--perversely limited these schemes' ability to extend coverage, offer financial protection, and retain members. We studied three schemes in India, two of which are member-operated and one a commercial scheme, using household surveys of insured and uninsured households and interviews with managers. All three enrolled poor households and raised their use of hospital services, as intended. Financial exposure was greatest, and protection was least, in the commercial scheme, which imposed the lowest caps on benefits and where income was the lowest.
Dror
David M
DM
Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. daviddror@socialre.org
Radermacher
Ralf
R
Khadilkar
Shrikant B
SB
Schout
Petra
P
Hay
François-Xavier
FX
Singh
Arbind
A
Koren
Ruth
R
D003132:Commerce; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003363:Cost Control; D017047:Cost Sharing / Q000379:methods; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors