Financial Inclusion and Health: How the Financial Services Industry is Responding to Health Risks

Developing health solutions can be a triple win for clients, society and financial service providers (FSPs). For FSPs, the main intended audience of this paper, keeping clients and their families healthy makes business sense. While there is great demand for such solutions, only a few FSPs have focused on tackling health challenges. There is considerable scope for further experimentations.

This paper begins by exploring the context of health, highlighting the different costs associated with maintaining good health, and the efforts of governments to support citizens in managing these expenses. Different financial instruments, such as savings, credit and insurance, as well as non-financial services are then discussed, illustrating how they can contribute to managing health expenses. The paper also draws on a number of case studies where FSPs have developed products and services to specifically tackle health needs.