Health Insurance and Reinsurance at the Community Level
SOCIAL REINSURANCE: A NEW APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY HEALTH FINANCING, Dror D.M., Preker A.S., eds., pp. 103-124, World Bank & ILO, 2002
21 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2007
Abstract
Microfinance institutions have acquired experience operating certain types of insurance (Balkenhol and Churchill, chapter 4, this volume). Often, microfinance lenders sell life or crop insurance as security for loans in lieu of traditional collateral. Such an arrangement, making the lender both beneficiary and insurer, protects the lender instead of the insured. The basic difference between this type of insurance and health insurance is in the definition of beneficiary or principal. Because health insurance is not a necessary condition for access to credit or other resources, the agent cannot easily impose affiliation on its principals. For that reason, the principal-agent relationship in health insurance is significantly different from the relationship under other forms of community-level insurance. This chapter deals only with community-funded health insurance.
Keywords: micro health insurance, social insurance, insurance for the poor, community based health insurance, health financing
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation