Protecting the Poor? The Distributional Impact of a Bundled Insurance Scheme

This study examines the distributional impact of a community-based insurance scheme which covers death, hospitalization, and asset loss benefits in a bundled package. It looks at the distribution of insurance benefits between urban and rural members and between the poorest and least-poor members. Urban members benefited much more from the scheme than rural members. While the scheme provided considerably higher benefit to the poor within urban areas, the rural poor benefited far less than the better-off rural members. The results have implications for scheme administration and policy; changes need to be made at both levels to provide a more balanced distribution of scheme benefits. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.