To What Extent Does Non Profit Private Micro Health Insurance Help Improve Public Health Care?

This article examines how non-profit micro health insurance can help improve public healthcare.

The article is based on the SKY micro health insurance project that GRET, a French NGO, has been developing in Cambodia for a decade. Healthcare in Cambodia involves self-medication, visits to private practitioners, traditional therapists, and doctors in public facilities, which lead to high costs and mediocre care. SKY project's internal database and four qualitative studies conducted between 2007 and 2008 indicate that:

• SKY project has enabled greater utilization of public healthcare, a better perception of the quality of care, and better capacity for financial anticipation;
• Self-medication among the insured, however, persists;
• Attitude of poorly paid health care workers does not favor rational use of medicines;
• Orientation of ministerial financing of health care is not always consistent with the project's objectives.

Finally, synergies between non-profit private micro health insurance and public health care will be more effective when insurance accounts for a large share of health care facilities' revenues and when the subscriber base is large.