-
Insuring the Next 400 Million in India: Why the Mutual Insurance Model Presents a Clear Path to Scale
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on India’s healthcare system, causing challenges ranging from a lack of medical oxygen to limited hospital capacity. But as Payal Agarwal at Uplift Mutuals explains, the pandemic has also brought to light the inadequate insurance infrastructure in the country, which accounts for almost 18% of the world's population but only 1.72% of the global insurance market. She shares the results of a new report exploring the potential of mutual and cooperative insurance to close that gap in India, and discusses how this model can be scaled.
- Categories
- Finance, Health Care
-
Niti Aayog Forecasts Healthcare Sector to Reach $372 Billion by 2022 in India
India’s healthcare sector is expected to reach $372 billion in 2022, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 22% since 2016, more so with the pandemic opening up several opportunities, NITI Aayog said in a report on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
-
Launching India’s Microinsurance Revolution: How the Sector Can Build Upon Growing Customer Awareness Due to COVID-19
Since the start of COVID-19, customers in low- and middle-income countries like India have had an increased understanding of the value of insurance. But as Moin Qazi explains, typical insurance schemes are often unsuited for the unique needs of this population. He explores how microinsurance can better address these needs, and how providers and policymakers can capitalize on low-income customers' growing awareness of insurance's benefits – while navigating the business challenges of serving these communities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
-
At a Ugandan Factory, Workers Prove That ‘Periods Don’t Pause for Pandemics’
Following a Ugandan government directive, the team at AFRIpads faced a tough decision: shut down and sell off stocks, or transform the factory into a co-living space to remain in operation.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
The Donor-Funded Dilemma: What’s Stopping Emerging Countries from Developing Private Markets for Contraceptives?
In sub-Saharan Africa, the private sector provides family planning solutions to almost 40 percent of women. But that isn’t the case in Malawi, a country that’s long been dominated by donor-funded commodities. Erika Beidelman and Andrea Bare at the William Davidson Institute explore Malawi's family planning landscape, highlighting five factors that may be limiting the private sector’s involvement – issues that may apply to other countries with histories of donor-funded healthcare.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Two Problems, One Solution: How Fintech is Boosting Access to Banking and Insurance for Domestic Workers in Mexico
More than 2 million domestic workers in Mexico go unseen by the formal financial system – they don't pay into a pension or social security system, and remain unbanked and badly underserved. Mexican fintech startup 4UNO is serving this hard-to-reach segment with an innovative banking and insurance product delivered through their employers. BFA's Gabriela Zapata explains how 4UNO is avoiding the pitfalls traditional financial institutions have faced in working with low-income clients.
- Categories
- Finance, Health Care
-
Two-Sided Mobile Platform Creates ‘Network Effect’ to Help Patients, Health Clinics
The private health sector, where a large percentage of people in developing countries seek care, is fragmented and marked by poor quality and high prices. Two interlinked programs conceived by a group in the Netherlands – M-TIBA and the Medical Credit Fund – are attempting to address this problem at large scale. Both have achieved remarkable growth within a short period.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
India turns to private sector to boost health coverage
India’s new New Health Policy 2017, the first issued in 14 years, takes a sharp turn toward embracing the private sector in its aim to achieve universal health coverage. The government will seek to plug gaps in service for its 1.2 billion people through “strategic purchasing” of care from private facilities and clinics.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia