Determinants of Non-Availing Health Insurance Policy in Rural Areas

Health insurance in India is a growing segment of India's economy. In India there is a lack of awareness regarding tools called health insurance. Unlike other segments, Health Insurance is a more complex business because of serious conflicts arising out of unavailability of data and information gap problems. Proper understanding of Indian Health situation and application of principles of insurance, keeping in view the social realities and national objectives, are important. Hence this study attempts to understand the factors that influence the rural people for availing or not availing health insurance policy. Objectives of the study are a) To study the factors influencing the rural people to avail health insurance policy b) To examine the determinants influencing the rural people not to avail health insurance policy c) To understand the association between demography of respondents (with respect to age, educational qualification and monthly family income) and determinants of availing health insurance policy. Null hypothesis was framed to test the association between demography of respondents (age, educational qualification and monthly family income) and the determinants of availing health insurance policy. Primary data was collected from 150 respondents identified by Stratified Random Sampling technique representing rural area of Thanjavore District using structured questionnaire. The data was processed and analysed using SPSS package Version 11 and various statistical tools like f-test and t-test were used for discussion. The study results revealed that educational qualification, age, and family income are the major factors which influence the rural people to avail health insurance policy; gender and marital status are the major factors which prevents the rural people of the study area to avail health insurance policy; Also there is significant difference between the demography of the respondents and the determinants of availing health insurance.