Financing Micro Health Insurance

Healthcare for all at affordable prices is still a major but universally elusive goal. Everyone spends money on healthcare, and it is the most impoverishing consumption item. Thus, most governments (and the United Nations) promote Universal Health Coverage — each country's unique blend of tools for healthcare financing, including taxes, subsidies and market controls. Most people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have no health insurance of any kind. And most LMIC governments lack the political will, information, or resources to require their citizens to buy health insurance themselves or to subsidize insurance for all who cannot afford the price. This book deals with financing voluntary and contributory health insurance for resource-poor and rural groups in LMICs. This book addresses three issues. The first is how to catalyse demand for health insurance and develop insurance literacy among the largely illiterate and innumerate target population, using training programs to build an enabling consensus, allowing locals to create and administer such schemes. The second involves the process of developing simplified methods for risk assessment, which can help to underwrite risks, price the micro health insurance schemes, and ensure proper implementation. The third issue is formulating a compelling business case which would make this health insurance affordable, financially sustainable, and operationally scalable. This book develops insurance education and financial literacy for students of economics, business administration, insurance, development studies, and social work to prepare them for practical work as implementers, policymakers, or evaluators. A supplementary section for teachers and students includes comprehension questions.Contents: About the Author About the Contributors Acknowledgments Synthesis Theory: The Demand for (Micro) Health Insurance in the Informal Sector The Effect of Consensus on Demand for Voluntary Micro Health Insurance in Rural India 'One for All and All for One': Consensus-building Within Communities in Rural India on Their Health Microinsurance Package Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance The Elusive Quest for Estimates of Willingness to Pay for Health Microinsurance Estimating Willingness-to-Pay for Health Insurance Among Rural Poor in India by Reference to Engel's Law Systematic Review of Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance in Low and Middle Income Countries Hardship Financing of Health Care Among Rural Poor in Orissa, India Methods: Illness Mapping: A Time and Cost Effective Method to Estimate Health Care Data Needed to Establish Community-based Health Insurance A Model to Estimate the Impact of Thresholds and Caps on Coverage Levels in Community-based Health Insurance Schemes in Low-Income Countries Do Micro Health Insurance Units Need Capital or Reinsurance? A Simulated Exercise to Examine Different Alternatives Evidence: Health Insurance Benefit Packages Prioritized by Low-Income Clients in India: Three Criteria to Estimate Effectiveness of Choice What Factors Affect Voluntary Uptake of Community-based Health Insurance Schemes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Building Awareness to Health Insurance Among the Target Population of Community-based Health Insurance Schemes in Rural India Mobilizing Community-based Health Insurance to Enhance Awareness and Prevention of Airborne, Vectorborne, and Waterborne Diseases in Rural India Enrollment in Community-based Health Insurance Schemes in Rural Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India Implementing a Participatory Model of Micro Health Insurance Among Rural Poor with Evidence from Nepal Microinsurance: Innovations in Low-Cost Health Insurance Can the Rural Poor in India Afford to Treat Non-communicable Diseases? 'First We Go to the Small Doctor': First Contact for Curative Health Care Sought by Rural Communities in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, India Impact: Field-based Evidence of Enhanced Health Care...