Page 18 - Life Insurance Today FEBRUARY 2016
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active support of the governmental and non-governmen- populations, indicating the existence of demand but
tal infrastructure that is available. also made commendable job in rural people;
Customer aspirations towards healthcare services be-
At the root of the success will lie the ability to utilize the coming demanding;
meager paying capacity of the poor to ramp up a respon- Keenness of the insurers (mainly by the private players
sive & quality scheme to remove the frequent health risk for the need of NGOs) for crafting the right micro-
being faced by the poor and to prevent further deteriora- health insurance products;
tion of their well being. Liberal attitude of the Regulator to give impetus for
the growth of micro-health insurance.
The challenges are many, but I would like to reiterate once Funding by corporate sectors through payment of
again that I am incorrigibly optimistic that if all institutions health premium by adopting a community.
can be convinced to converge on all these important issues Monitoring of escalation of use of Medicare.
that has been discussed, there should be substantial break-
through in Micro-health Insurance in near future. From the position hitherto discussed, it does become evident
that many micro-health insurance schemes have not only
My opinion is based on- achieved good enrolment levels amongst their target popu-
lations, indicating the existence of demand, but from a
Taking into account various estimates like - policymaker's perspective, these schemes have also improved
The estimates of UNDP (Ref: Building Security for the access to insurance for health services for the poor. In a sce-
nario where ill health, natural catastrophe, etc. have been
Poor: Potential and Prospects for Micro-insurance in a major cause for impoverishment, the value of such finan-
India, UNDP Human Development Report Unit, Asia & cial health protection doesn't need to be reemphasized.
the Pacific, April, 2007, ISBN 978-955-1031 -16-9);
Projections of McKinsey (Ref: McKinsey Global Insti- Also, many schemes have indeed grown larger and have
tute: The Bird of Gold: The Rise of India's Consumer continued to be in to existence for many years, indicating
Market; McKinsey & Company, May,2007); that sustainability of micro-health insurance schemes can
A surging interest in Micro-health insurance by the be ensured through good design and management. A ben-
concerned MFIs, NGOs, SHGs; efit package which meets the need for financial protection
(which, indeed, is the key function of insurance) as also ad-
Growth of Indian Micro Health Insurance Scheme into dresses the 'felt needs' of the community needs to be care-
larger entities continues; fully balanced with affordability, as the costs do go up as
the scope of coverage is expanded.
Many micro-insurance insurance schemes have not only
achieved good enrolment levels among their target
It is also visible that community driven cost-control mecha-
nisms (like social audits of claims, pre-determined collec-
tion periods, co-payments), as also measures to minimize
transaction/administrative costs (for example, through col-
lective payment of premium or deduction at source) or to
keep third party providers' charges under control can be
devised and are highly effective in keeping costs (and
hence, premiums) at manageable levels.
References: Different contemporary discussions & infor-
mation as collected & collated from various text materials
available on-line & in hard copies.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
18 February 2016 Life Insurance Today
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