Micro Health Insurance in India - Pointers for Progress

Abstract

One cannot exclude the possibility that insurers and others, insufficiently aware of clients' priorities, seem to misinterpret low demand as reflecting low willingness to pay, ignoring the unattractive value proposition of the main product and the devastating impact on the demand side of cherry picking. One can wonder if those who are interested in making insurance work for the poor in India might be stuck in a vicious cycle, which looks like this: poor products - low demand - low willingness to pay - lowering of premiums - further worsening of insurance product or service.

Keywords: micro health insurance, social insurance, insurance for the poor, community based health insurance, health financing, willingness-to-pay