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"A holistic approach to micro-insurance - breaking the cycle of illnesses and debt"
by Mukti Bosco | Oct 06, 2008
184 reads | 3 Comments

This is discussion about "A holistic approach to micro-insurance - breaking the cycle of illnesses and debt" .

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Healing Fields - Speading Awareness about the concept of Risk

by S Kumra | Nov 10, 2008
 

Having worked in the insurance sector, I have seen that the perception of risk is missing or low even in the middle income communities in India.

I appreciate the work Healing Fields is doing to spread awareness about the importance of Health Insurance - it is an challenging task - especially in the poor communities!

This education model adopted by Healing Fields not only ensures increased enrollments, but also makes their sustainable by "retaining" old customers and spreading good word-of-mouth!

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Sarabhjit Kaur | Business Analyst | Transaction Advisory Services | Ernst & Young

The power of change brought about by Healing Fields

by S Kumra | Nov 10, 2008
 

I have been a member of Women's Empowerment Committee in the National Service Scheme in Delhi. In my experience, I have learnt that the main financial burden for the poor comes in when one of the members of their family falls sick. That is when th entire month's and sometimes even several months earnings get washed away in one go!

I believe that Healing Fields has come up with a very inventive and effective idea to combat the times of distress for the underpriveleged communities using the power of microinsurance. BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ILLNESSES AND DEBT (as they put it) is very important to bring out a sustainable change. Only once the poor are out of this vicious cycle, they can concentrate on other matters.

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Sarabhjit Kaur | Business Analyst | Transaction Advisory Services | Ernst & Young

Alleviating suffering permanently

by Thien Nguyen-Trung | Nov 12, 2008
 

I did my summer internship with Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship Group helping Mukti Bosco at Healing Fields and after visiting the villages myself, came to fully realize how important her work is in breaking the vicious cycle of debt and disease in too many areas of India.

Only 10% of Indians have any form of insurance, believe it or not! That leaves +900 million people without!

Imagine a farmer who makes $1 a day to fee a family of 4. He breaks his leg one day and can't go to work. He then has to take out a loan to pay for his hospitalization cost. To pay for his loan's enormous interest, he then has to take out more loans, until he is permanently indebted. His children will have to be taken out of school early and will be deprived of their future forever. Worse: nowadays, many hospitals in India outright refuse to service poor people out of many prejudices, even if healthcare is supposedly "universal".

Healing Fields Foundation found a clever way of providing incentives for hospitals to provide quality care while making it also affordable to poor people who would otherwise out of desperation and ignorance turn to quacks.

I hope you will agree and will come to believe in HFF as much as I have. We need to scale this operation up quickly and encourage adoption by other organizations.

All the best of luck, Mukti!

Thien, MBA Candidate 2009, Kellogg School of Management