1. Agriculture Insurance in India - Sidharth Sinha -
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Government run crop yield insurance scheme, procurement at minimum support prices and calamity relief funds are the major instruments being used to protect the Indian farmer from agricultural variability. However, crop insurance covers only about 10% of sown area and suffers from an adverse claim to premium ratio. There are problems with both the design and delivery of crop insurance schemes. These problems could be overcome with rainfall insurance with a well developed rainfall measurement infrastructure. Private and public insurers are currently experimenting with rainfall insurance products. Given the current levels of yield and rainfall variability the actuarially fair premium rates are likely to be high and in many cases unattractive or unaffordable. Instead of adopting the easy and unsustainable route of large subsidies, in the long term the government should consider risk mitigation through improvements in the irrigation and water management infrastructure.
2. A Strategy paper on Delivering Micro Health Insurance through the National Rural Health Mission - Rupalee Ruchismita, Imtiaz Ahmed, Suyash Rai', submitted to the NRHM - Download PDF
The paper highlights the challenges in financing health in India and examines the role of health insurance in addressing these. It proposes an operational framework for developing sustainable health insurance models under the National Rural Health Mission, responding to the contextual needs of different states.
3. Health Ecosystem Paper- By Dr. Sayed Imtiaz Ahmed - Download PDF
The paper highlights the challenges in financing health in India and examines the role of health insurance in addressing these. It proposes an operational framework for developing sustainable health insurance models under the National Rural Health Mission, responding to the contextual needs of different states.
The public health systems in India is plagued by twin problems of an unresponsive , large , bureaucratic and heavily preventive/promotive focused government health system and an ever burgeoning , unregulated , costly and curative focused private care. With an almost dysfunctional government healthcare system which lacks semblance of quality curative care in the public realm , the poor are forced to access expensive private health care facilities. To access such care in the absence of any comprehensive social security, the poor either have to borrow money or sell assets making them vulnerable to poverty.
This paper discusses how the failure of both the public and private players in healthcare has affected the poor. It also tries to explore a possibility of introducing a risk transfer mechanism like insurance and how it can bring about the much needed health system reform taking into account experiences from other countries.
In this document, insurance is visualized as not only a payout for curative care of the community but also tries to overcome the systemic errors in the current set up by improving infrastructure , incentivising staff and bringing about overall accountability into the system. It also suggests the use of technology to integrate and bring about efficiency in the entire health system and in the process generates essential data for evidence based action. The ultimate focus of the argument is to make quality healthcare accessible , affordable and feasible for the poorest of the poor. This overall theory is popularly known as the Health ecosystem concept .
