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 poorAn 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 InsuranceA 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 insuranceHis 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.The UN wants insurance companies to help protect the world's poor against the impacts of climate change.Insurance-based schemes could make money available to affected communities much faster than traditional aid, its climate meeting in Nairobi was told.A pilot project in Ethiopia earlier this year insured 62,000 rural families against drought.Computer models of climate change suggest droughts and floods will become more common across Africa.
Current extreme weather events on the continent affect most severely the livelihoods of people with no access to conventional insurance."Every year, the World Bank donates millions in order to repair events and to repair disasters; and we need a step change in the way we manage relief for poorer parts of the world," said Thomas Loster of the Munich Re Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation linked to the re-insurance giant."Through public-private partnerships that match seed money from public sources with the skills of the private sector, I believe we can do this by realising new kinds of risk cover across large parts of the developing world."Poor harvestThe pilot project in Ethiopia shows how such schemes could work in practice.Using money provided by the US government, the Ethiopian administration and other donors, the World Food Programme (WFP) brokered a deal with the Axa Re insurance company to obtain cover for 62,000 rural families against drought.The insurers agreed that below a certain minimum of rainfall, they would pay $7m within a matter of days, to be spent on food aid or payments to farmers. The premium paid was $930,000.As it happened, rainfall stayed above the threshold, and Axa Re kept its money. But WFP's Peter Smerdon believes the project shows how poor communities can gain relief quickly."The big advantage is it's much faster," he told BBC News."Normally, you see a disaster coming, you wait for it to get there, you go and assess the damage, you go and see what you need, you appeal to donors, you have to get the food and assistance in there; and that can take months."By that time, he observed, farmers might have lost their livestock, sold their farming equipment, and eaten their seeds.Subsequently, they must rely on international assistance to restore living standards, which is much more expensive in the long run as well as much more damaging to people's lives.