A Study on the Working of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)

Risk and uncertainty are incidental to life. These risk and uncertainties are increasing day by day due to increase in fastness in life. To provide against risk and insecurity of human life, insurance came into being. The main underlying principle of insurance is the pooling of risks. Health insurance is bought to cover medical costs for expensive treatments. It is a running fact that the premium on health insurance schemes is too expensive and unaffordable to an average human being. In this regard government responsibility to ensure the health security and health insurance to the financially unsecured becomes a crying need of the hour. To address the mentioned issue, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a health insurance scheme for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families has been launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. Literature shows that the benefit of the scheme is largely confined to rural India than urban. Further it raises the need to reach out to the poorest and the most vulnerable sections of the society, and make available affordable health care to them. Studies further reveals the fact that almost 50 percent of BPL households were found to be poor and only 30 percent of them were aware of RSBY. Lower awareness level and poor penetration are found to be the major hurdles. The beneficiaries of the scheme experience delays of several months to avail the smart cards; poor knowledge of how and where to utilize the scheme; hospitals not trained to use card-reading technology; and month-long delays and arbitrary caps in the reimbursement of treatment expenses to hospitals. Being this as the fact it would be meaningful to see the awareness of people of Kerala about the scheme, the rate of enrollment, the difficulties in enrollment and their real experience as the beneficiaries of the scheme