Background : Awareness and recognition of health insurance is still very preliminary. Health insurance is not a new concept and people are getting used to it, but this awareness has not yet reached the level of universal subscription to health insurance products. Insurance has not been widespread in rural areas for important reasons such as high delivery costs and low rural awareness of private and government insurance products. There is a need to provide rural families with financial security for the treatment of serious illnesses requiring hospitalization or surgery. This study is an attempt to raise individual awareness and awareness in the field of health insurance.
Methodology : A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 412 participants in a rural area of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. A predesigned semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview them. Data were entered into Ms Excel and analyzed with SPSS 16.
RESULT : The study population consisted of 227 (55.1%) males and 185 (44.9%) females. Awareness was higher among women (74.6%) than among men (56.8%). 46-55 years (31.8%) was the largest, 36-45 years (26.2%), 56-65 years (24.5%), 26-35 years (12.1%), >66 (5.3%). There was a statistically significant association between education and health insurance perceptions (p=0.010). The most important sources were family members (241 (58.5%)), followed by friends (21) (5.1%) and insurance agents (1.9%). 14 (3.4%) knew about the eligibility requirements and 72 (17.5%) knew about the services provided by the health system.
CONCLUSION : In this survey, 267 people (64.8%) surveyed had public awareness of health insurance. About 62.86% of the participants had a Prime Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Card (CMCHIS), 1.94% of the survey participants had a private insurance card, while 35.15% of the survey participants had no insurance card. I didn't have it. Only 3.39% of study participants were aware of their health insurance requirements. 17.4% of participants were aware of the various benefits of health insurance. 93.3% of the participants knew how to use their health insurance cards only in public hospitals, but did not know how to use their cards in private hospitals. Only 2.42% of survey participants knew their health insurance coverage. 1.45% (n=6) of participants were aware of the age restriction criteria. 1.69% (n=7) of participants were familiar with various diagnostic tests paid for by health insurance. Only 1.21% (n=5) of survey participants had knowledge of call centers.