A STUDY ON LEVEL OF AWARENESS & PERCEPTION ABOUT MICRO HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES IN DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, KARNATAKA

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1 A STUDY ON LEVEL OF AWARENESS & PERCEPTION ABOUT MICRO HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES IN DAKSHINA KANNADA DISTRICT, KARNATAKA Prof. Subhashchandra KT Associate Professor Government RC College Bangalore Shaila K Asst. Professor Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies Bangalore ABSTRACT Despite widespread interest in expanding insurance at the bottom of economic pyramid, the overall penetration of insurance is quite low in India. This paper attempts to research the overall awareness and perception level of micro health insurance schemes by investigating whole gamut of diverse products, agents dealing them, procedure followed in claim settlement, acceptance at hospitals, etc, in order to assess influence of these toward deeper penetration among rural India, through sampling questionnaire in a set of villages in the district of Dakshina Kannada, in the state of Karnataka. Key words: Micro Health Insurance, health, Risk, Perception, Awareness Introduction: Health is regarded as supreme wealth & people spend an increasing portion of their earnings on health as they grow older. However in emerging country like India we witness astonishing ignorance among people on the quantum of money they would need to save for their medical needs. The matter becomes more serious if we consider rural landscape where not only the per capita income is less but also one man earns for entire family, thus carrying the burden of finding the financial means should there be a medical emergency. World Health Organization statistics shows that approximately 47% of hospitalization admissions in rural India are funded by loans & selling assets. This alarming statistics shows how medical contingencies can strain cashflows & negatively impact on financial goals. The single biggest weapon people all over the world found against fighting such a contingency is Health Insurance. In this direction micro health insurance schemes assume a significant importance in reaching a large number of people. In India public health care provision has not been successful in building healthy security into the lives of poor. Low quality of public health service, inefficiency in public health provision, shrinking budgetary support for health care services led the concern for poor to find the alternate finance mechanism. This felt need made the health insurance sector to emerge & gain momentum in rural India. Statement of Topic: Health is a major issue. Mobilization of fund in case of medical emergency is a great difficulty to family members. In order to meet such difficulties an alternative source of fund is required. There are many public & private financial institutions which play a major role in providing health insurance coverage especially in rural area. But due to various reasons rural people rarely opt for health insurance products. Among various factors, people awareness & perception of diverse health insurance products available in different geographical area places a significance role in supplying health insurance activities as well as supporting people in medical emergency. Hence the topic was selected for the study. Background Information of study area: The study was conducted in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka State. The district has the population of 2,089,

2 Demographic details of Dakshina Kannada District Description 2011 Actual Population 2,089,649 Male 1,034,714 Female 1,054,935 Population Growth 10.11% Area Sq. Km 4,861 Density/km2 430 Proportion to Karnataka Population 3.42% Source: Demographic details of Dakshina Kannada district-rural and Urban: Description Rural Urban Population (%) % % Total Population 1,093, ,086 Male Population 541, ,230 Female Population 552, ,856 Average Literacy % % Source: Objectives of study 1. To Identify the various micro health insurance products available in Dakshina Kannada 2. To study the risk management strategy adopted by the people as risk relief measure in case of medical emergency 3. To study the awareness level of Micro Health Insurance in Dakshina Kannada district 4. To understand the people s perception towards micro health insurance in DK 5. To provide appropriate suggestions with regard to micro health insurance scheme Methodology: The research was carried out in Dakshina Kannada district. In Dakshina Kannada district there are four taluks. From each taluk three each villages were randomly selected. Thus, in total, 12 villages were taken for study. Collectively 120 respondents were selected, without applying any sample selection standard. In this study both primary & secondary data are used. The structured questionnaire is used to collect primary data. The data were collected by administering the questionnaire to the selected respondents. For the measurement of awareness of micro health insurance, responses were elicited on two point scale (i.e. Yes or No) & five point scale on perception towards micro health insurance. Whatever the strategy adopted by the respondent in case of medical emergency was exposed by asking them open end questions & the same is presented in percentage. Limitations: 1. Number of respondent are restricted to 120 since it is a survey for one month just to assess people perception towards micro health insurance 2. Dhakale Grama (12 villages) are selected based on fixed no. of population from 1000 to The important criteria for selection of respondent limited to minimum qualification of SSLC & family income must be less than 360,000 per annum Results & Discussion: As the present research study is based on primary data from selected respondents, the researcher has used frequency distribution, Percentage for analyzing data as well as Chi-square was put to use to test the significant data for selected item. Results & Finding Table 1: Demographic profile of respondent Basis Category of respondent No of respondent Percentage Gender Female Male Age(Years) Below & Above Education SSLC

3 PUC Diploma 8 7 Graduates Others Nil Nil Occupation Agricultural Labour Agriculturist 7 6 Dairy Based Activity Tailor Mechanic 5 4 Small Business Bidi Workers Daily wage workers 4 3 Fishing Annual Family Income Below 50, ,001 1,00, ,00,001-1,50, ,50,001-2,00, ,00,001 3,60, Marital Status Single Nil Married Separated Nil Divorced 02 2 Widow Widower No of dependents & above Total Table 2 : Risk Management strategy by the rural people in case of medical emergency Strategy in case of medical emergency Yes No Loan from Friends 22% 78% Loan from Money Lender 36% 64% Sale of asset 79% 21% Hypothecation of asset 88% 12% It was evident from the above table that 88% of the respondent use hypothecation of asset as a risk management strategy in case of medical emergency. Followed by 79% of the respondents who were selling the asset & managing the risk. About 36% of the respondent were taking loan from money lender. Only 22% of the respondents were taking the loan from friends to manage the risk Table 3 : Awareness about Micro Health Insurance policy Reasons Yes No Awareness about micro health insurance Scheme 62% 38% Awareness about the agencies who 41% 59% implementing this scheme Awareness about the type of risks which are 31% 69% covered under micro health insurance scheme Awareness about the procedure to avail the micro health insurance scheme 18 82% It is understood from the table 3 that respondent are aware of micro health insurance scheme. 139

4 From the research study it is understood that majority of the respondents (62%) have some basic awareness of micro health insurance schemes. However when it comes to knowledge about agencies implementing micro health insurance schemes and different types of risk covered there seems to be lack of proper information. Most of the respondents (82%) are totally unaware of procedure to avail Micro health insurance schemes. This proves that there is clearly much work to do in creating want for the micro health insurance scheme in Dakshina Kannada district & then convert want into need to drive adoptance Table 4 : Awareness of various Micro health insurance products in Dakshina Kannada Micro Health insurance products Known UnKnown Purchased Yeshasvini Health 41% 59% 38% Insurance Scheme Sampoorna Suraksha 48% 52% 40% Rastriya Swatya Bima 26% 74% 3% Yojana Star micro health 2% 98% Nil insurance Awarness of Micro Health Insurance Products 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Yeshasvini Health Insurance Scheme Sampoorna Suraksha Rastriya Swatya Bima Yojana Star micro health insurance Known Unknown Purchased Known Unknown Purchased 140

5 Table 5 :Perception regarding health Insurance Scheme of Following Factors in Perception of Micro Health Insurance Schemes Factors / Complication Expensiveness Speed of Clarity of Acceptance Response in Procedure of Premium claim risk level in settlement coverage Hospitals Advice given by beneficiary Politics in getting benefits in Govt funded schemes Availability of cashless facility Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree Total Null No influence No influence No No No No No No Hypothesis influence influence influence influence influence influence Ch-Square Calculated Value Degrees of Freedom Chi-Square Tabulated Value Result Reject H0 Reject H0 Accept H0 Reject H0 Reject H0 Reject H0 Reject H0 Accept H0 Conclusion No influence No influence Findings 1. The study shows that majority of the respondents is in the age group of From the survey it was found that majority of the respondent are educated 3. The study tells that most of the respondents chosen Bidi rolling or fishing as an occupation 4. In the study number of dependents in the family is between 2 to 3 that shows the potential need for micro health insurance policy 5. Out of 120 respondents 88% are using hypothecation of asset in the case of medical emergency 6. Majority of the respondents (62%) have some basic awareness of micro health insurance schemes. 7. In Dakshina Kannada district majority of the respondents were aware of Yeshasvini health insurance scheme & Sampoorna Suraksha 8. Factors that influence perception on micro health insurance scheme was found by using chi square. The result reveals that there are significant influence of complicated procedure, high premium, No clarity of risk coverage, acceptance level in hospitals, advice by agents, politics in getting benefit under government funded medical schemes in selecting micro health insurance schemes. Further it was found that there was no significant influence on speed of claim settlement & availability of cashless facility 141

6 Conclusion As India continues to shine in the global economy with large number of working young population as its dividend, it is imperative that improving economic standard of living is accompanied by a robust atmosphere valuing health, and in turn, protecting the same through effective health insurance at micro-level starting from villages. In this paper we studied the awareness & perception about Micro Health Insurance among people in Dakshina Kannada and understood that the people are aware about Micro Health Insuirance products but the purchase rate is still minimum with over 60% not covered by any microhealth policy. Eventhough, in general, people have positive perception about Micro health insurance yet some specific factors give negative perception on overall micro health insurance products; these can indeed be improved with better products catering to low cost expectation, extensive advertisement in local media, engaging local social workgroups & making products as well as advise easily accessibility to the mass. Diligent execution of these recommendations, we trust, would surely serve the purpose of widening the insured base to promote growth of Micro Health Insurance Industry in Dakshina Kannada, besides filling the gap in health needs of the population. References: 1. Cameron,A.C, and Trivedi, P.K. et al.(1998). A Microeconomic Model of the Demand for Health care and Health Insurance in Australia. Review of Economic Studies 55(181):85 2. Acharya, A. and Ranson, K.M. (2005) Health Care Financing for the Poor Communitybased Health Insurance Schemes in Gujarat Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 38, pp Kuruvilla, S., & Liu, M. (2007). Health security for the rural poor? A case study of a health insurance scheme for rural farmers and peasants in India. International Social Security Review, 60(4), Yeshasvini Co-operative Farmers Health Care Scheme Report Ahuja, R. (2003). Micro-Insurance for the Poor: Policy Choices. Economic and Political Weekly, 38(48), Krishna Swami O.R. and Ranganatham M, (2002), Methodology of research in social sciences, First Edition, Himalaya publication 7. Maumita Ghosh (2013), Awareness and Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance: A Studyof Darjeeling District, IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 12(1), pp Declaration We hereby confirm that the above written article on A Study on Level of Awareness & Perception about Micro Health Insurance Schemes in Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka is an original work undertaken by Prof. Subhaschandra KT & Shaila K, and the same has not been published anywhere else. 142