Health Seeking Behavior in Karnataka: Does Micro-Health Insurance Matter?

BACKGROUND: Health seeking behaviour in the event of illness is influenced by the availability of good health care facilities and health care financing mechanisms. Micro health insurance not only promotes formal health care utilization at private providers but also reduces the cost of care by providing the insurance coverage. OBJECTIVES: This paper explores the impact of Sampoorna Suraksha Programme, a micro health insurance scheme on the health seeking behaviour of households during illness in Karnataka, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in three randomly selected districts in Karnataka, India in the first half of the year 2011. The hypothesis was tested using binary logistic regression analysis on the data collected from randomly selected 1146 households consisting of 4961 individuals. RESULTS: Insured individuals were seeking care at private hospitals than public hospitals due to the reduction in financial barrier. Moreover, equity in health seeking behaviour among insured individuals was observed. CONCLUSION: Our finding does represent a desirable result for health policy makers and micro finance institutions to advocate for the inclusion of health insurance in their portfolio, at least from the HSB perspective.