Can Micro Health Insurance Reduce Poverty? Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of micro health insurance on poverty reduction in rural areas of Bangladesh. The research is based on household level primary data collected from the operating areas of the Grameen Bank during 2006. A number of outcome measures relating to poverty status are considered; these include household income, stability of household income via food sufficiency and ownership of non-land assets, and also the probability of being above or below the poverty line. The results show that micro health insurance has a positive association with all of these indicators, and this is statistically significant and quantitatively important for food sufficiency. Key words: O12 JEL: Microcredit, Micro Health Insurance, Poverty, Grameen Bank. Acknowledgments: We are very grateful to Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus for giving us permission to conduct our survey on Grameen Bank. We are also grateful to Shaikh Abdud Daiyan, the former Managing Director of Grameen Kalyan, for his whole hearted support for our survey. We offer our special thanks to the rural women who spent time answering the questions patiently and eagerly