Occupational Differences in the Awareness and Perception of Health Insurance of Workers Employed in Urban Informal Sector of Punjab

Abstract

Health insurance could play a vital role to improve the health status in a country. But penetration of health insurance is very low in India. Therefore, present study endeavours to examine the awareness of health insurance, sources of awareness and determinants of awareness among workers employed in urban informal sector of Punjab. For the analysis three group of informal sector workers (construction workers, vendors and shopkeepers) have been identified from the three urban districts of Punjab, namely, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. The analysis was made with the help of descriptive statistics and multivariate probit regression. The analysis shows a significant difference in the awareness of health insurance across the occupational groups. The multivariate probit regression shows that age, education, religion, type of family, occupation, income, BPL card, experience of outpatient care, inpatient care and awareness of the insurance were the significant determinants of awareness of health insurance. In order to increase the penetration of health insurance the government, policy makers and the marketers of health insurance should make people aware about the potential benefits of health insurance policies. It is recommended to understand the awareness and perceptions of the people towards health and develop a package that is accessible, available, affordable and acceptable among informal sector of the society.

A Qualitative Investigation of Barriers and Facilitators Involved in the Implementation of Endowment Insurance in China’s Construction Industry

“…Construction workers' low willingness to participate in endowment insurance is also highlighted in many previous studies. According to research conducted by Kansra and Gill [34], a low level of awareness and understanding of the benefits of insurance has been identified among construction workers. Specifically, many workers lacked knowledge about the system and were unclear about how it worked [35].…”

Determinants of Health Coverage Awareness for Poor Beneficiaries of the Thai Universal Health Coverage Scheme

“…It was also apparent from the same study that those with earnings of 150,001-200,000 rupees were more likely to realize this fact than those who earned in the region of 50,000 rupees (Kansra & Gill, 2016a). Regarding occupations, Kansra and Gill (2016b) discovered that in shopkeepers, those aged under 30 and those aged between 31-40 were more aware of health insurance. Construction workers of primary level to up to lower secondary level education were more aware than those with no education.…”

Social Insurance for Informal Workers in Magelang-Indonesia: Why Is Participation Still Low?

“…Kansra & Gill [5] states that health insurance has been held in India, but only 48.3 per cent of informal sector workers are aware of the importance of health insurance and even then not all of them are active insurance participants. Furthermore, in Thailand according to the results of a 2012 survey, the number of informal sector workers was 24,800,000 or 62.6 per cent of the total workers.…”