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November 1, 2006
Developing Pro-Poor Health Insurance in India: An International Conference on Micro Health Insurance
Location: New Delhi, India
Dates: 1-2 November 2006
Venue: India Habitat Centre Auditorium, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110 003 (Tel: (+11) 24682001)
India clearly emerges as the world’s leader in the development of low-cost health insurance through micro health insurance units for poor and for rural population-segments. Around 40 such schemes, covering several million clients, are active in India. And the numbers are on the rise.
Most of the existing micro health insurance schemes decided to run their own independent insurance. Non-commercial mutual “micro health insurance schemes” are attractive because they involve the clients in some aspects of the business process, are more responsive to clients’ priorities and can mobilize ongoing contacts among members to enhance broad-based affiliation and renewal, and to monitor outlier utilization.
In this conference new information will be disseminated on the effectiveness of community health schemes in delivering health insurance for poor and rural population segments in India. The new evidence was gathered and analyzed in 2005 and 2006 under the project “Strengthening micro health insurance units for the poor in India”, funded be the EU/ECCP. The main source of information is a household survey conducted in seven locations where micro health insurance units operate; the survey covered upwards of 4,930 households, and is the largest comparative survey of this kind conducted in India so far.
The results of the analysis are presented thematically, following the main functions of the business cycle of insurance. Within each topic, practitioners and experts discuss the adaptation of the business processes to suit the specific requirements of health insurance for the poor. Special attention is devoted to the question of policy choices for the rollout of sustainable insurance for the poor.
Conference programme - outline:
Session I: “What’s in a Name?” Types of micro health insurance This session will deal with strengths and weaknesses of different models of operating micro health insurance schemes. The panelists, representing groups that operate different models of organization or ownership, will share their experience; and the discussion that will follow will highlight the different objectives that underlie the alternatives of delivering health insurance.
Session II: “Rules & Relationships” Responding to clients’ priorities This session will focus on the experience with giving choices to clients to design a benefit package, as individuals and as groups. We will discuss ways to attract, retain and satisfy clients within a micro insurance scheme, while at the same time generating revenues and offering judicious choices.
Session III: “The salesman’s job begins when the client says no” In this session, panelists will discuss experience with sales and distribution among the uninsured. There are a few success stories, and some tips and ideas about increasing clients’ awareness about the benefits of health insurance.
Session IV: “Act locally - think globally”: settling claims This session focuses on claims processing: what lessons can be learned from the experience with arrangements for cashless access to healthcare? Local scrutiny of claims? And with guidance to the clients about which healthcare providers to access?
Session V: “Size matters” (… and sustainability too) Europe’s social health insurance started from a community basis as well. What insights can the European experience with social health insurance schemes offer for the development of community based health insurance schemes? And how can these make a scalable, sustainable contribution toward insuring the uninsured poor in India?
Session VI: “The future belongs to those who believe their dreams” This session will focus on the medium and long-term prospects of health insurance among the poor. A fair and orderly development of the supply of insurance will most likely raise issues of regulating this insurance market, to ensure fair competition among insurers (notably prevent selection of good risks, or ‘cream skimming’). This session will also include a discussion of the role of subsidies in developing equitable supply of health insurance.
Further details and online registration is available on: http://www.ficci.com/ (after entering the FICCI website, click on “events” and then look for this event)
A conference brochure + registration form in hard copy is available from:
Ms. Natasha Wig / Ms. Kaneaka Sehgal,
Insurance & Banking Committee,
FICCI, Federation House,
Tansen Marg New Delhi 110001 (India)
Tel: +91 (11) 2373 8760;
+91 (11) 2376 5339;
FAX +91 (11) 2332 0714;
Email: mhi@ficci.com
More information on the project is available on http://www.microhealthinsurance-india.org/
