Draft report of the RSBY study in Gujarat

Draft report of the RSBY study in Gujarat

RSBY_REPORT

The study assesses the impact of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in Gujarat, India. RSBY is a national health insurance scheme launched by the Government of India in 2008, to enhance access to quality hospital care by families living below the poverty line (BPL). The impact of RSBY was measured with respect to its enrolment rates, effect on access to hospital care, and financial protection offered to BPL families. This study also attempts to understand the factors influencing these outcomes by describing issues related to performance, governance, and monitoring of the scheme via stakeholder analysis.

To read more download the report RSBY draft report – click here 

Draft report of the RSBY study in Gujarat

Does AADHAAR and PAN card mean RSBY card??

It was another day in the field collecting data for Health Inc project. The team reached village near Nelamangala. After meeting staff in Gram Panchayat (GP) we were asked to talk to Anganawadi teacher and take her help to identify the houses for collecting data. But the teacher was not happy to accompany us. She said “why should I help you? it is GPs responsibility”, however we managed to convince her to accompany us.

Source*

Interesting discussion started after that, we gave her the list of household and explained where we got that list. She said…oh then I have that list with me and I also have many cards in the cup board and she took out box full of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) smart cards. When asked why cards were not distributed..she said…”why should I give, it is GPs responsibility”! It was clear there was no coordination between Anganawadi teacher and GP. But it was poor who were deprived of benefit. I asked teacher, do you know what this card is. She said yes it is health card!! Do you know anything more than that? No…that is the only information given on the day of camp!!

Then team got divided and along with Mr Omkar I followed teacher to one house. Teacher first entered the house and said there are some people who want to collect information and she started walking out. I heard female voice from inside asking what information? Teacher screamed from outside.. “about that PAN card you collected from me last week”!! I said …what!! PAN card…no no we are not here to collect information about PAN card…teacher smiled and said “madam these people don’t understand” and she started walking away….I questioned myself…who does not understand? Does the teacher understand? How does she know they do not understand? Anyways it was time for me to get inside the house and sit with Omkar.

When Omkar showed RSBY smart card asked do you know about this card….informant said yes it is AADHAAR card (AADHAAR is Unique Identification number issued by Govt India) and when asked who told you that…Anganawadi teacher came and called us to take photo for AADHAAR card and she gave this card later. Informant showed some paper which was given on the day photo was taken; those papers were related to AADHAAR.

I thought on the day of camp did they take photos for AADHAAR and RSBY? Why was no information given to people about RSBY? Why did Anganwadi teacher call people for AADHAAR card? Did not get answer but thought may be people responsible to issue cards felt poor people will not understand or they did not want to give information? Not sure but I moved to next house thinking does different types of card means the same for poor…NO BENEFITS & NO INFORMATION?

*http://www.rsby.gov.in/

Draft report of the RSBY study in Gujarat

2nd global meeting of Health Inc consortium at Dakar

The second global meeting of the Health Inc project was held in Senegal between 9th and 11th November. This meeting was hosted by the Centre de Recherché sur les Politiques Sociales (CREPOS – Research Centre for Political and Social Science) in the capital city of Dakar. All partners of the Health Inc consortium attended this meeting. From IPH, the Health Inc team comprised of Dr.Devadasan N, Dr.Thriveni BS, and Dr.Tanya Seshadri.

The three day meeting began with presentation and discussion by ‘Experts by Experience’ in poverty and social exclusion from Belgium who provided insight into social exclusion from the point of view of those excluded. This enlightening start was followed by presentations from all partners regarding their localised research protocol along with challenges foreseen. While the previous meeting had allowed for discussions regarding health financing mechanisms across Ghana, Senegal, Maharashtra (India) and Karnataka (India), this time the focus was on the planning and implementation of research across the various sites. The challenge remains to develop a common skeletal protocol while allowing each team to develop protocols based on their specific context. The health financing schemes being used to study social exclusion in the African and Indian sites are National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS, Ghana), Plan Sesame (Senegal) and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY – Maharashtra and Karnataka).

This meeting was followed by a two day workshop for the junior researchers from the various institutes. The workshop had the group divided into country-based teams and each team worked on developing context-specific hypotheses and initiated work on the research tools.

For further details about the project, visit the recently launched website at http://www.healthinc.eu/

Photo below shows representatives of all six partners of the Health Inc consortium under the Baobab tree (national tree of Senegal) at Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal.

 

 

 

Draft report of the RSBY study in Gujarat

IPH team visits CHIAK (Kerala)

 Comprehensive Health Insurance Agency Kerala Dr.Tanya and Dr. N Devadasan visited the Comprehensive Health Insurance Agency Kerala (CHIAK) at the invitation of Kerala Government.

The aim of the visit was to understand the existing Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna(RSBY) program in Kerala and identify ways to strengthen it.

They also interacted with other stakeholders including patients, empanelled hospitals, Third party administrators,the Insurance company and the software company.

More photos – click here