The project will bring together the Government of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, ICICI Foundation, public and private healthcare providers, community organizations and technology providers to provide quality, affordable and equitable healthcare to low income households.
It aims to develop an outpatient insurance product at affordable premiums to complement India’s national inpatient insurance program for low income households, called Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The RSBY scheme covers hospitalisation expenses of low income people households. Despite the availability of inpatient insurance for hospitalisation expenses, poor families continue to incur significant out of pocket expenditure for outpatient services and health expenditure continues to be one of the main reasons for impoverishment in India.
The project will test the impact of a comprehensive health benefits package on household health seeking behaviour and client satisfaction. Additionally, the effect of outpatient benefits on inpatient service utilisation will be assessed. The project will leverage RSBY's administrative and technology platform which uses smart cards and point of service devices at health care providers to support enrolment and electronic transfer of member and healthcare provider data (medical, financial and demographic). Distribution of the product will be through the enrolment camps facilitated by ICICI Lombard on behalf of the Government of India and the nodal organisations in the states where the pilot districts are located.
ICICI Lombard expects that the insurance scheme, offering benefits which can be accessed through the public health system, private outpatient clinics and supplementary mobile medical vans, to have a transformative impact on health delivery for the poor, and to support the achievement of inclusive growth.The project will bring together the Government of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, ICICI Foundation, public and private healthcare providers, community organizations and technology providers to provide quality, affordable and equitable healthcare to low income households.
It aims to develop an outpatient insurance product at affordable premiumsto complement India’s national inpatient insurance program for low income households, called Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The RSBY scheme covers hospitalisation expenses of low income people households. Despite the availability of inpatient insurance for hospitalisation expenses, poor families continue to incur significant out of pocket expenditure for outpatient services and health expenditure continues to be one of the main reasons for impoverishment in India.
Read about the project in this Economic Times article.
The mission of ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (IFIG) is to empower the poor to participate in and benefit from economic growth in India in the fields of primary health, elementary education, financial inclusion and sustainable livelihood. Founded by the ICICI Group (a financial services conglomerate that includes ICICI Lombard) in early 2008, IFIG’s initiatives are implemented through active collaboration with the government and independent organisations.
In this project, ICICI Lombard will be the implementing agency, and has engaged IFIG to support research and documentation and dissemination of results.
The project will target low income households who qualify for enrolment in the RSBY health insurance scheme sponsored by the government of India. Nationwide, this group comprises at least 300 million people, mostly employed in the informal economy and earning approximately Rs 55-60 ($1.25) per day. The project will target households in Puri district of Orissa and Mehsana district in Gujarat and is expected to impact 270,000 lives across both locations.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. is the largest private sector general insurance company in India with a gross written premium of around USD 1 billion for the financial year ended 31 March 2011. It offers a wide range of products and services for business and individual customers across all population segments ranging from all risk insurance policies for large projects to home insurance for households. One focus of ICICI Lombard is to provide health coverage to a large number of low income households across the country via various government health insurance schemes. Health microinsurance initiatives began in 2005, and as of 31 March 2011 ICICI Lombard served approximately 7 million families across India.
