title: Renewing membership in three community-based health insurance schemes in rural India.
abstract: Low renewal rate is a key challenge facing the sustainability of community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes. While there is a large literature on initial enrolment into such schemes, there is limited evidence on the factors that impede renewal. This article uses longitudinal data to analyse what determines renewal, both 1 year and 2 years after the introduction of three CBHI schemes, which have been operating in rural Bihar and Uttar Pradesh since 2011. We find that initial scheme uptake is ∼23-24% and that 2 years after scheme operation, only ∼20% of the initial enrolees maintain their membership. A household's socio-economic status does not seem to play a large role in impeding renewal. In some instances, a greater understanding of the scheme boosts renewal. The link between health status and use of health care in maintaining renewal is mixed. The clearest effect is that individuals living in households that have received benefits from the scheme are substantially more likely to renew their contracts. We conclude that the low retention rates may be attributed to limited benefit packages, slow claims processing times and the gap between the amounts claimed and amounts paid out by insurance.
authors.affiliation: International Institute of Health Management Research, Dwarka, New Delhi, India pradeeppanda@iihmr.org.
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Panda
authors.affiliation: Public Health Foundation of India, India.
authors.forename: Arpita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chakraborty
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wameq
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Raza
authors.affiliation: International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arjun S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bedi
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000191:economics*; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Community-based health insurance; renewing membership; rural India