Page 20 - The Insurance Times June 2020

INNOVATING AND

IMPLEMENTATION

OF MICRO HEALTH

INSURANCE - THE

BANGLADESH

WAY

Abstract
Over the past 30 years Bangladesh has made significant progress in developing its health indicators.Moreover,
Bangladesh had successfully achieved most of the targets of Millennium Development Goals and looking forward to
accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals within 2030. In this connection, quality healthcare and affordable
health services are the utmost priority of the government. However, through the various health reports and analysis's,
we can find that the people of Bangladesh especially country side and lower middle income groups are facing numerous
health related challenges & facing the difficulties to bear cost of diagnosis and ensuring proper treatment for having
the highest percentage of out-of-pocket (OOP) payments scenario in Bangladesh.
Therefore, Bangladesh needs to come up with innovative approaches to provide the means of alternative financing to
people. Innovative technology driven health insurance product can be an effective tool to bring them under the safety
net of health insurance coverage.
The research has been designed embracing the methods of cluster randomized trial allowing the identification of direct
and indirect effects of MHI on actual OOP incurred by the insured vis-à-vis the non-insured households who are otherwise
similar in economic, educational and social dimensions. Such an analysis holds the promise of determining whether
MHI type of intervention may eventually lead to large-scale implementation so that quality health care reach the target
segment of the policyholders thereby contributing to the cause of universal health coverage.

About the author Introduction
Like other developing countries the poor and middle class
Shubasish Barua people of Bangladesh face a wide range of risks like illness
Head of Impact Business & and injury, death of livestock, harvest failure, flood, cyclones,
Executive Vice President drought, and so on. It has been noticed that they usually
Green Delta Insurance Company Limited, adopt various self-insurance devices such as engaging in ex-
Bangladesh ante income diversification, investing in lower risk assets,

20 The Insurance Times, June 2020