The Insurability Of Risk In The Micro Health Insurance Market

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Economy - Health Economics, grade: 1,7, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: The desirability of micro health insurance is usually beyond doubt but the sustainable provision is a different matter. Even traditional insurance economics have issues which complicate the adequate coverage of risks but the problems in the microinsurance environment are even more dicult to handle. When looking for an approach on how to analyse risks in micro health insurance and how to insure them one will fail to find one. So far, data is very rare. Usually it is only possible to find a small amount of data extracted out of small scale studies/ evaluations. The microinsurance database of the World Bank is an attempt to collect all kinds of relevant data concerning microinsurance but so far, there is only some basic data for six countries. Recently there has been the attempt to start an analytical framework on how to assess insurability of risk in microinsurance. Biener and Eling provide a starting point by adjusting the insurability criteria of Berliner to a microinsurance environment. This paper will continue the work in the area of micro health insurance and suggests a further criterion to be used when assessing the insurability of risk.

There may be a price to pay (in terms of inefficient coverage) if competition among health insurers is encouraged as a way to give patients greater choice and to achieve better control over insurance providers.

This book is the first and only study on implementing Universal Health Coverage in poor, rural and informal settings, with end-to-end guidance for rolling out a demand-driven and needs-based health insurance model. The chapters are comprehensive, covering topics such as data collection and analysis for contextual risk assessment, the design of suitable benefits packages, how to price microinsurance, insurance education for illiterate or innumerate populations, the setting up of governance bodies and training staff for key roles, and information management.The book contains insights gained from years of fieldwork in several countries and is valuable reading for undergraduate and graduate students and practitioners of health microinsurance. As a companion to the author's first book, Financing Micro Health Insurance: Theory, Methods and Evidence, this book provides the only current source of information on implementing health microinsurance. The practical guidelines to setting up and operating a microinsurance scheme are accompanied by impact evaluation, chapter exercises and Issue Briefs that present examples of using tools that are necessary for successful implementation.

In this relatively short survey, we present the core elements of the microeconomic analysis of insurance markets at a level suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate economics students. The aim of this analysis is to understand how insurance markets work, what their fundamental economic functions are, and how efficiently they may be expected to carry these out.

Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,0, Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences (Wiesbaden Business School), language: English, abstract: Comparing the last centuries ́ most significant natural disasters worldwide with the most costly insurance losses, we find that practically none of them had a large influence on commercial insurers. The reason is rather simple: most large-scale disasters happened in developing countries where the majority of population has no insurance coverage. Poor households are not only exposed to more risks, they also have fewer options to overcome them. Without access to social security systems and poorly developed private insurance markets it is hoped that microinsurance provides the low-income population with a possibility of reliable formal protection. Ten years ago hardly any commercial insurance company recognized a profitable market in the so-called bottom of the pyramid; the low-income segments of developing countries. Today, many large insurers, such as Zurich and Munich Re have recognized the potential of emerging markets and spot a multibillion market with the possibility of having a first-mover advantage. However, expansion is still largely driven by governmental organizations and key players of development aid enforcing and supporting community-based organizations. The aim of this thesis is to show how the microinsurance sector is currently developing, under what circumstances insurers can realize growth opportunities and what actions must be taken to provide a valuable financial service.[...]

Annotation This volume views community-based microinsurance as an incremental first step to improved financial protection and better access to health services for the poor. While community-based financing can be structured in various ways, this volume focuses on reinsurance as a mechanism for improving micro-level health insurance units. It outlines strategies and policies that can be applied by countries and donors to improve access to health care services.

Health related expenditures are an important determinant in the poverty traps of “the bottom of the demographic pyramid” in many low- and middle-income countries. Often both the governments and the private markets are unable to provide financial protection against health related risks to all its citizens, as is the case in India. Micro-health insurance attempts to fill this gap. However, issues of stability and sustainability threaten their existence. Reinsurance could aid micro-insurers here. The reinsurance market for micro-health insurance is however hardly developed. Research on this topic has also been absent so far. The objective of this to explore and explain the non-functioning reinsurance market for micro-health Insurance in India, and to explore ways, possibly through reinsurance in some form, to develop this market to make the micro/health insurance schemes more stable and therefore sustainable.

In 2002 a group of insurance and reinsurance professionals set out to demonstrate that the low-income market was a viable insurance market. The initial aim was to better understand client needs and the willingness of insurers to provide products to this market. The team worked within Opportunity International, which, as a leading microfinance network, was able to provide the borrowers and seed capital needed to get started. Between 2002 and 2005 the team worked as an internal consultancy that designed products around the needs of Opportunity's clients; designed, discussed, and agreed upon insurance products; and set up a direct bank assurance or "partner-agent" relationship between the bank and insurers. After three years, about 1.5 million borrowers and family members had access to microinsurance--simple insurance products with low benefits and affordable premiums. Although there had been some success in introducing more complex products such as weather index insurance, the majority of clients had access to simple life and property products. It seemed clear to the team that providing access to higher-impact products such as health insurance would require creating a specialized back-office function. In 2006 the team entered discussions with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which challenged the team to consider how high impact products could be introduced through a range of distribution channels. The main output of the discussion was the creation within Opportunity International of the Micro Insurance Agency. Later, as a result of a US$24.25 million grant, the agency became a separate company, which was renamed MicroEnsure. Central to MicroEnsure's model is the concept that providing insurance to the poor involves performing three roles: first, carrying the risk; second, acting as the front sales office; and third, carrying out the back-office functions necessary to keep track of who is covered and to ensure a high level of service. During the first three years of the microinsurance effort within Opportunity, it became clear that the weakest part of the link between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and insurers was the back office. Insurers wanted the MFIs to perform the back-office functions, and this approach worked well when the products were simple, such as credit life. When, however, the MFIs had to capture data on spouses and children, introduce a policy that ran for longer than the loan, or administer a significant volume of claims such as those arising from health insurance, the cracks started to appear. In response, the insurance companies took on the back-office functions, and although they were capable, management expenses rose as high as 40 percent, resulting in a higher cost to the client or a reduction in how fast claims were paid out. It seemed that one of the missing components in a functioning microinsurance market was a specialized back-office provider--a void that MicroEnsure set out to fill. The MicroEnsure model uses a range of entities to carry the risk. For life and property insurance, there is an ample supply of local insurance companies in most countries where MicroEnsure works. With more complex products like weather index insurance, MicroEnsure has had to use international reinsurers, such as Swiss Re. To provide health products, MicroEnsure has formed cell captive structures, which are essentially reinsurance pools formed using insurance companies' capital. Although MicroEnsure does not seek to carry risk on its own balance sheet, it does get heavily involved in designing products on behalf of others.