Paper
Non-profit Insurance Schemes for the Unorganised Sector in India
The need for and offer of non-profit insurance schemes in India
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38 pages
This paper provides an overview of existing non-profit health insurance schemes for the unorganized sector in India.
The paper makes the following points:
- Formal security arrangements cover only about 10% of the labor force in India;
- A range of civil society organizations have experimented with security provision mechanisms over an extended period of time;
- There are associations, unions, cooperatives, self-help groups and non-government organizations (NGOs) offering insurance products for the unorganized sector.
The study:
- Examines the Indian public and private health care systems and the major features of Indian insurance products;
- Studies existing literature and secondary information in order to provide an overview of all informal health insurance schemes in India;
- Presents detailed case studies of the following non-profit health insurance schemes:
- The Mathadi Hospital Trust,
- Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA),
- Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC),
- Tribhuvandas Foundation.
The study states that:
- Establishing the necessary basic infrastructure for health insurance will be an expensive, demanding and time consuming exercise;
- A federation of non-profit organizations offering similar insurance schemes is one way in which economies of scale can be achieved.
The study concludes with recommendations for quasi-insurers, such as SEWA, for intermediary organizations and for community-based health insurance schemes.
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