Karuna Trust, Karnataka - ZEF

Good and Bad Practices in MicroinsuranceKaruna Trust, Indiarelief for the poor, education, medical relief and the advancement of any other object ofgeneral public interest.No income generated in the trust should directly or indirectly be used for the benefit of thefounder of the trust or other specified persons. Furthermore, the property should be heldexclusively for charitable purposes. There is no central law governing public charitable trustsalthough most states have “Public Trusts Acts”. Typically, a public charitable trust mustregister with the office of the Charity Commissioner having jurisdiction over the trust inorder to be eligible to apply for tax-exemption.Table 2.2 Insurance Organisation Basics - Trends2005 2004 2003 2002Total assets (US$) * * * *Annual budget (US$) ** ** ** **Total capital (US$) 11,360 11,360 11,360 11,360Number of branches 4 4 4 4Total number of microinsurance policyholders (heads ~ 6,000 ~ 14,000 ~ 7,000 ~ 18,000of households)Total number of microinsurance insured lives 26,530 a 61,233 33,716 b 85,092Number of microinsurance staff ~ 40 c ~ 40 c ~ 40 c ~ 40 cNumber of policyholders / microinsurance staff (%) 663,25 1530,82 842,9 2127,3Microinsurance marketing costs (US$) - - - 2,730* The insurance scheme per se owns no assets.** There is no special budget for microinsurance operations.aPremium collection is still going on; Karuna Trust decided to insure several batches this year per July 20 th ,July 28 th , October 5 th (these three account for 26,530 lives) and December 15 th (Karuna expects to reach50,000 insured after the fourth batch).b Chamarajanagar taluk (separate operation from 31 st March 2003 until 29 th Feb. 2004), premiumssubsidized at 100% as only BPL SC/ST people were covered; In T. Narsipur the insurance was reintroducedon 1 st June 2004 with Chamarajanagar as extension of T. Narsipur operations form this year onwards.cNot all work full time for the insurance scheme2.2 Organisational DevelopmentStrategic StructureKaruna Trust follows a partner-agent model of insurance provision while making use of thepublic health infrastructure. With its product, Karuna Trust compensates for some of thepublic infrastructure’s shortcomings. The structure of this arrangement involves variousorganizations at the state, district, taluk and local levels, as illustrated in Figure 2.1.The Karnataka Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is involved in the strategic planning atthe state level. The subordinate Health Authorities (e.g., Zilla Panchayat Health Officer)attend meetings of the District and Taluk Level Coordination Committee. Representingthe health care provider in this insurance arrangement, they are expected to improve thequality of health care services. The coordination committees meet regularly and monitor theimplementation of the insurance scheme. Members of the coordination committees includethe executive officer of the respective Panchayat, medical professionals of health facilities inthe area, as well as representatives of Karuna Trust and NIC.15