RESPONSIVENESS OF GENERAL PUBLIC TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: A STUDY OF MYSORE DISTRICT

N. P. Mahesha Assistant Professor Dept. of Commerce & Management Sri.D.D URS GFGC, Hunsur

B. Shyamsundar Assistant Professor Dept. of Commerce & Management SMGFGC, Kabbahalli

INTRODUCTION

Good health allows to work hard leads to standard of living

and national development. In fact, finding the good health all the time, in all the places at all times in all persons is difficult. The reasons for weak health are many but the common one is due to diseases. Weak health leads to lower productivity of organizations, nations and family also. It is true that man cannot avoid the diseases but can plan to get cure from the disease. In developing nations like India, the cost

of medical services is rising and one needs plan for medical services
through some health policies.

REIVIEW OF LITERATURE

The review of research has been presented under:

(i) Perceptions of Public; (ii) Perceptions of Elder People; and (iii) Perceptions of General Public on Insurers.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the present empirical study are to measure the perceptions of the general public towards health insurance and to study the perceptional differences among urban vs. rural, male vs. female, young vs. adult, higher education vs. lower education, high income group vs. low income group, paid employees vs. Self employees and policy holders vs. non-policy holders.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA The analysis and interpretation of data has been presented under (A) Universal Analysis (B) Group Analysis.

Statements N Mean

Std. Deviation

Premiums are high and costly The benefits extended are limited

80 80

3.54 3.61

1.090 0.921

Settlements are delayed

Settlements are denied Full claims are not reimbursed Promises are too many but not delivered The officials misrepresents the claims in the policy Policy details cannot be read and understood Disputes are always settled in favor of insurance company Only selected hospitals honor insurance coverage Experts are not available in the tie-up hospitals Non-covered items are preferred by tie-up hospitals More unnecessary formalities are required to be observed Infrastructure facilities may not be available for treatment Tie-up hospitals encourage the unnecessary treatments Quality and charges are low in tie-up hospitals Total

80
80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80

3.36
3.12 3.41 3.63 3.26 3.61 3.40 3.74 3.66 3.43 3.55 3.47 3.59 3.40 3.49

1.139
1.072 1.229 1.072 1.064 1.238 1.051 1.076 1.090 1.053 1.005 1.043 1.144 1.109 1.09

TABLE 2 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: GENDER ANALYSIS

TABLE 3 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: LOCALE ANALYSIS

TABLE 4 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: AGE ANALYSIS

TABLE 5 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: EDUCATION LEVEL ANALYSIS

TABLE 6 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: INCOME ANALYSIS

TABLE 7 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: EMPLOYMENT ANALYSIS

TABLE 8 PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS HEALTH INSURANCE: INSURANCE COVERAGE ANALYSIS

MAJOR FINDINGS 1. The sample respondents feel that the premiums are very high, benefits extended are limited,

settlements are delayed,

full claims are not reimbursed, promises that are made are not delivered, the officials misrepresent the claims in the policy

2. The respondents with lower education, high income, and self employed assigned higher mean values to the statement that tie-up hospitals

encourage unnecessary treatments.

3. Male respondents, respondents from low income group, and respondents having health policy accepted the statement that experts are not available in the tie-up hospitals.

4. Respondents from rural areas accepted the statement that infrastructure facility may not be available for treatment. 5. Adult respondents who were above 33 years age felt that the policy details cannot be read and understood.

6. Young respondents who were aged 33 years and below felt that the benefit extended were limited.

CONCLUSION The most important wealth of any human being is health. People want to live longer and for that they always take care about their health and also prefer health insurance as a part of care. Therefore, people expect more

from health insurance, insurers and the hospital which treat them. From the
present empirical study, we may conclude that the general public are not satisfactory with the current status of health insurance level.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We highly acknowledge the guidance from sri. Dr. K. Nanjegowda, Retd. Professor, University of Mysore and Sri. B. Madhusudhan, assistant Professor, GFGC,

Sakarayapatna for their enticing guidance in preparing this research paper.