A Study on Awareness of Health Insurance in Tiruchirappalli District

Health insurance as a tool to finance healthcare has very recently gained popularity in India. Government has been putting serious efforts to introduce health insurance for the poor in recent years in order to improve access of poor to quality medical care and for providing financial protection against high medical expenses. Health insurance is fast emerging as an important mechanism to finance health care needs of the people. The need for an insurance system that works on the basic principle of pooling of risks of unexpected costs of persons falling ill and needing hospitalization by charging premium from a wider population base of the same community. In the present scenario the annual expenditure on health in India amounts to about $Rs.500 in rural areas and Rs.1000 in urban areas per person, majority of care being provided by the private sector. There is greater awareness and increasing demand for better health services. This study aims at evaluating the awareness of health insurance in Tiruchirappalli District.