Reducing Vulnerability: The Supply of Health Microinsurance in East Africa

by Michael McCord and Sylvia Osinde
Jul 1, 2003
1 min

This paper addresses the supply side of micro-insurance. The authors identified seven institutions in the East African region as case studies to help understand supply side products and operations.

This paper addresses the supply side of micro-insurance. The authors identified seven institutions in the region as case studies to help understand supply side products and operations. These institutions were selected based on having an active health care financing product serving the low-income market (except one). It also focuses on a variety of delivery mechanisms and different organisational structures vis-a-vis various kinds of urban and rural institutions. These institutions ranged from the start-up Community Health Plan in Kenya with 100 clients to the Tanzanian Government’s Community Health Fund with its reported 330,000 members. It also provides lessons from different institutions which focus on issues relating to management and governance of the institutions, micro-insurance products, operations and accounting, marketing, risk management and relationships among insurers, service providers and intermediaries.