Micro-insurance and Health Care in Developing Countries - An International Picture

Publication Date: Jun 2004
Published by: Leuven, Belgium: Cera Foundation
Document Type: Paper

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How can micro-insurance institutions improve access to health care?

This paper describes the ways in which micro-insurance institutions can fit into the local health care situation. The paper uses information taken from a seminar entitled ‘Mutual Health Insurance – in search of success factors learned through Belgian field experience in developing countries” organized by Belgian Raiffeisen Foundation (BRS) and others.

The paper describes micro-insurance institutions as institutions not only pooling financial resources of local people but also negotiating with medical personnel to improve the quality of services provided and give advice and information to their members.

It argues that micro-insurance institutions can play an important role in improving access to health care, and finds the following other advantages of micro-insurance institutions as:

• Better organization and quality of health care provisions;
• Contribution to furthering democratic management in health care services;
• Promotion of general welfare and social integration of members.

The paper lists down important steps towards formation of micro-insurance institutions and describes the problems encountered while starting-up of a micro-insurance institution.

The paper also discusses financial viability and the role of re-insurance of micro-insurance institutions in achievement of financial viability. It cites examples from different countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to support these findings.