Rural people's perception towards health insurance with special reference to Calicut city

Insurance industry has contributed significantly to India's growth in recent years. Insurance is concerned with the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed small loss to prevent a large possibly devastating loss. The health insurance is alternatively called as ‘Healthcare Insurance’ or ‘Mediclaim Insurance’. In mid 1980’s most of the hospital in India were Government owned and treatment was free of cost. With the advent of Private Medical Care, the need for health insurance was felt and the four Public Sector General Insurance Companies namely, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and United Insurance Company introduced mediclaim insurance as a product in the year 1987. The present study is an attempt to analyze the rural people's perception towards healthcare insurance. The paper also examines the various factors that influence while taking insurance policy and information source of health care insurance policy. The paper has been prepared with help of primary and secondary data. The primary data collected from 50 rural policy holders in Calicut city through a structured questionnaire.