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PSI Promotes Hospital Insurance Program for Uninsured Families in India
PSI/India is working to spread the word about a new national health insurance program that provides insurance for hospital visits to below-the-poverty-line (BPL) families. Paying for medical emergencies can send families in India into deep poverty or force them to decide between food and medical care.
The program, called Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, is sponsored by the World Bank in conjunction with the Indian Labor Ministry and private insurance companies.
Insurance agencies provide the health coverage and the premium is subsidized by the government. The program offers cashless hospitalization insurance worth $750 for one year in selected hospitals for 725 health conditions for five members of BPL families. The plan costs each family 75 cents annually.
PSI/India conducted a communications project with 14,000 households in Delhi and Rajasthan to promote the program. Staff met with families and used mailers, posters, leaflets and a telephone helpline to tell them about the program. All the households in Delhi were contacted in 15 working days and the Rajasthan project launches in May.
The government program will cover 10 million families every year for at least five years. PSI/India will contribute a strategy on how best to reach the families, educate them about their entitlements and empower them to use available facilities. The World Bank plans to use the results from PSI’s project to conduct a study on how many families will use the insurance.
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