Enrolment of Health Insurance by Cardiovascular Disease Affected Informal Industrial Workers in Coimbatore

Abstract

Health care costs have risen drastically over few years, and any medical treatment can make a dent on individual’s savings but with the help of these special health insurance plans, an individual can give extra cushion to them and can come out good from these problems. Insurance may be described as a social device to reduce or eliminate the risk of life and property. Under the plan of insurance, a large number of people associate themselves by sharing risk, attached to an individual insurance plan that exclusively covers healthcare costs and is called Health Insurance. One possible solution to the above said problem was to reduce the financial barrier through health insurance. Unfortunately, currently only about 10 percent of the population protected under any health insurance coverage. The most are for employees in the formal (Ellis et al. 2000). The informal workers were unprotected and had to depend on those above poorly financed public sector or the expensive private sector to take care of its needs. The government is keen to increase the insurance coverage and has even introduced special health insurance packages for the poor (Times of India, 2003). Health insurance schemes are one way of guaranteeing access to health care services.  Under such schemes ideally, people should apply for membership and be making monthly contributions so that in the event of any sickness; the health insurer will be able to meet the cost of medical care. Health insurance plays important role in healthcare service provision. It should again be noted that the health insurance market depends on policy interventions to balance supply side and demand side forces. Demand-side forces would naturally involve health insurance participation, and for credible policy interventions it may be important that those factors affecting participation be established (Mhere, 2013). Health insurance is the fast emerging as an important mechanism to finance the health care needs of the people. The need for an insurance system that works on the basic principle of pooling risks of unexpected costs of persons falling ill and needing hospitalization by charging a premium from a wider population base of the community (Bhatia and John, 2000). Work-related health problems result in an economic loss of four to six percent of gross domestic product for most countries. About 70 percent of workers does not have any insurance to compensate them in case of occupational disease and injuries.