Micro Health Insurance in Nepal
Structures Technical Assistance
Project Title:Micro Insurance in Nepal
PROJECT CATEGORY:Structures Technical Assistance
OBJECTIVE:
The project aims at lowering health risks and increase utilization of health care by poor families through the implementation of two community-based micro insurance schemes in the districts of Dhading and Banke, Nepal.
BACKGROUND:
A baseline survey completed in 2009 in Banke and Dhading provides evidence that 12% of households reported illness, of which 72% were acute and 20% were chronic conditions. Children under age 5 (found in 43% of households) and the elderly (in 26% of households) experience higher incidence of illnesses. Yet, like most of the poor, they have no access to health insurance because of the limitations of existing insurance products in terms of limited coverage, cost and exclusion criteria based on age, cathegory of healthcare provider and type of illnesses. As a consequence, many households are forced to deplete their assets to finance health care in the event of illness — and do so by borrowing money (19% of illness episodes and 53% of hospitalizations).
PROJECT CONCEPT:
MIA, in collaboration with its local partners, will develop affordable and inclusive micro health insurance for households of women that are clients of two active MFIs in Banke and Dhading. The programme is tailored to respond to the needs and willingness to pay of the target population, and relevant data has been collected during the base line survey. Importatly, the benefit package will complement services that are accessible at no cost to the community under existing schemes. It could cover any combination of hospitalization, maternity care, transportation costs, income loss compensation, testing, imaging and consultation/ medicines cost. Being a community based project which leverages the existing women's groups in the target districts, the women are in charge of building and finalizing the benefit package along with administrating and running the micro insurance scheme. As a preliminary action, 20 women in each district have been chosen to raise awareness on community based micro insurance among all target households during a period of two months.
PARTNERS:
The project will be conducted in collaboration/partnership with
Save the Children—USA, Washington DC, USA
Save the Children—Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal
Nirdhan Utthan Bank Limited, Central Office, Bhairawa,
Nepal Development Project Service Center (DEPROSC—Nepal), Kathmandu, Nepal
(find out more on MIA's current partners' page)
FUNDING:
funding frot this project has been obtained from a number of donors, some of which wish to be kept anonymous. The Rockefeller Foundation (New York) has contributed importantly to funding the baseline study in the two districts.
DURATION:2009-2012
COUNTRY:India, Nepal
LOCATION:
The project activities are conducted both in Nepal and India:
- Data analysis and desk research were done at MIA osecretariat in New Delhi, India.
- Field work were carried out at two Village Development Committees (VDCs)—Kohalpur and Khajura—in Banke and nine VDCs—Jogimara, Dhusa, Benighat, Gajuri, Trisuli, Pida, Baireni, Kalleri, Kumpur and Bhumisthan—in Dhading.
- Audio/ Video work for the Awareness campaign in production companies in Kathmandu and Delhi.
CONTACT:Dhriti Bhatta, Project Manager, dhriti@mia.org.in
PROGRESS:
The baseline survey (including data collection in Focus Group Discussion, Key Informant Interviews and Household Surveys, data analysis) were completed in 2009. A preliminary report (November 2009) and a full report (Jan 2010) are available on MIA's publications page.
These workshops were conducted in 2010 to build awareness about micro health insurance among representatives of the target communities. Over the design workshop the representatives from each location finalized the structure of their micro insurance scheme and provided various options for their benefit packages. They also prepared various awareness tools like posters, songs, street plays at the awareness workshop. These tools will be used by 20 women in each of the two districts to raise awareness about micro health insurance in the grassroots level during the awareness campaign. The awareness campaign will be conducted for two to four months from July 1st 2010, after which the implementation phase of the project will follow, provided timely funding is available.
