MICRO HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE POOR- A CASE STUDY OF SAMPOORNA SURAKSHA SCHEME IN MANGALURU CITY

The greatest hurdle for poor families trying to be independent is the sudden incidence of serious illness requiring hospitalization. Today hospitalization expenses are so high which will drain the savings and push the poor to the vicious cycle of debt. Apart from medical expenses, other non medical expenses like, births and deaths also put them under severe financial crisis. Health is a right of everyone. The private companies offer different kinds of health insurance schemes with a premium which can’t be afford by the poor sections of the society. Therefore micro insurance is one such scheme which will be exclusively helpful for the under privileged people in the country. The present case study focuses on the usage of the micro health insurance by the holders of the scheme. Study throws some light on the problems faced by the facilitators of micro insurance scheme. Data has been analysed by taking the beneficiaries of micro health insurance scheme sampoorna suraksha in Mangaluru city, of DK district. The findings of the study reveal that there is a maximum use of insurance scheme by the holders of the same. Micro Insurance schemes are functional mainly because of the NGOs. There is a need to support these NGOs to run these schemes in the long run in the most successful way. This can be made possible by providing them with financial assistance and help. But there can be some changes or developments done by government facilitate the continuity of the scheme.