New resource captures health insurance programs for low-income populations in developing countries

A new resource captures more than 100 health insurance programs designed for low-income populations in developing countries —an important milestone in developing a comprehensive database of this emerging industry. The resource is made available by Abt Associates and the Health Working Group of the Microinsurance Network in close collaboration with the International Labour Organization's Microinsurance Innovation Facility, Results for Development, and Denis Garand and Associates.

Today, tens of millions of low-income people have access to health insurance coverage—an impressive number, but only a very small proportion of the potential market. As the number of programs continues to grow, so does the volume of lessons learned on the design, administration and delivery of health insurance products and services for low-income households in developing countries. The Microinsurance Network Health Working Group's Inventory of Health Insurance Products and Lessons Learned brings that knowledge together in one place.  The Inventory offers snapshot profiles of health insurance products in more than 40 developing countries. Emerging lessons from the database include the successes and failures of these programs to reach poor households, price their products for the low-income market, provide value to their clients and achieve long-term viability.

This searchable database, which is available to the public, is hosted by the ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility at http://www.microinsurancefacility.org/en/hwg/ and the Center for Health Market Innovations, a public web platform managed by Results for Development at http://healthmarketinnovations.org/partner/microinsurance-network-min. The database includes information on each health insurance product, as well as emerging lessons extracted from academic journals, publications from industry leaders, and submissions from practitioners.

"This will be a valuable resource for the field of health insurance aimed at low-income families. It not only provides a comprehensive overview of such programs, but it will be a living document, updated as new research becomes available," said Thierry van Bastelaer, Principal Associate at Abt Associates and facilitator of the Network's Health Working Group.