Microfinance News » health insurance

ILO Microinsurance Facility calls for grant proposals

Microfinance Focus — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:57:38 +0000

Microfinance Focus, Dec. 11, 2009: The ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility (http://www.ilo.org/microinsurance) has issued a call for proposals to encourage insurance providers to experiment with new products and develop strategic partnerships to bring affordable insurance products to working poor in developing countries.

The ILO’s Facility provides grants to support organisations to develop innovations in the microinsurance sector. The grants can support insurance against any type of risk, but priority is given to products where demand exceeds supply, such as agriculture, health, life and property.

The Facility is calling for proposals for the fourth round of innovation grants. This call has a special emphasis on health microinsurance, but also welcomes applications for projects focusing on high-impact products and innovative distribution channels.
Microinsurers that have the potential to provide better insurance products to many low-income people but need their capacity to be to strengthened can also receive support. For more details, check the overview and the guidelines and application forms or go to the online application. Applications should be submitted by March 2, 2010, said a statement from the ILO.Related Posts:

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Free Clinics in Pakistan Promote Microinsurance for Healthcare

Microfinance Focus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:55:01 +0000

Microfinance Focus, Nov. 11, 2009: ‘First Microinsurance Agency (FMiA)’ in Karachi has offered several hundred clients basic outpatient care, along with information on health insurance. This is the part of a new programme designed to make poor people aware of microinsurance services and their benefits.

The health clinics programme, which is expected to continue, is meant to help fulfill FMiA’s goal of providing affordable insurance products carefully tailored to the needs of poor families.
“FMiA hopes to keep playing an important role in making health care easily available to its clients and others that need it,” said Al Malik Khoja, the acting CEO of FMiA.

Microinsurance services offered by FMiA include: hospitalization insurance, savings completion and credit life. Counselors at the clinics offer advice on microinsurance products, including how:
•   Health insurance provides cashless coverage for medical expenses incurred in private and medical hospitals due to serious illnesses, obstetric care and accidents,
•   Savings completion ensures that a family’s savings objectives are met even in the event of the death or injury of the breadwinner,
•   Credit life helps to protect the family of the loan borrower from debt in case of death or serious disability.

FMiA Pakistan is the first of two microinsurance institutions operated by the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM). FMiA focuses on the needs of poor families, in both the formal and informal economies, by providing them with a range of financial products that will help protect their assets and well-being.

AKAM is a not-for-profit; non-denominational, international development agency created under Swiss law and it has 13 microcredit operations and two microinsurance operations in 13 countries. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. It is governed by a Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Board is His Highness the Aga Khan.Related Posts:

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Insurers aim high: Vow to cover 500 mln Indians in 5 years

Microfinance Focus — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:15:13 +0000

Microfinance Focus, July 10, 2009: Indian health insurance industry aims to cover 500 million population over the next five years, said V. Vaidyanathan, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance managing director, at a FICCI-organised conference in New Delhi on Friday.
Dr Rudiger Krech of GTZ pointed out that economic development and health insurance go hand in hand. He stressed the need for a comprehensive package which would cater the risks associated with unemployment, injury, old age among others. He reiterated the need to develop social infrastructure like proper sewerage, education, pure water and said health insurance is intricately associated with all these efforts. Factually speaking, moneylenders who charge more that 25% interest are responsible for putting people back in poverty, he noted.
In India, we have 3% population that plunges into poverty (BPL) each year because of high health costs, unavailability of insurance and huge loan burden for borrowing money for health care treatment. A big turnaround would be to rely upon self-help groups and social networks like MFI’s for distribution of health insurance, he said.
Dr Hari Narayan shed light on the fact that health insurance is still a bleeding protfolio for insurers citing Rs 5,000-6,000 crore in premiums and claims at Rs 7,000-8,000 crore. He lauded the insurers for their commitment to the development of the health care.
Mr Anil Swaroop, who heads RSBY, informed that the scheme has touched 5-million mark and underscored he need to make it a scalable, replicable and sustainable model.
Other important points that came up during the conference were improvement in communicating with client, proper training of sales staff, use of technology to have access to remote areas, standardization of definitions and procedures and coverage for pre-existing diseases which constitute 90% of the reasons for claims being rejected.
Finally, the conference has agreed that a health insurance architecture for the poor is poor itself and need to build a world-class health care architecture.Related Posts:

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