Workshop on Designing Health Insurance Scheme for HIV Positive and Families in Gujarat,India

[Dr Rajesh Gopal]

Workshop on Designing Health Insurance Scheme for HIV Positive and Families in Gujarat

The 2006 estimates in India suggest that the adult HIV prevalence to be approximately 0.36 percent, amounting to between 2 and 3.1 million people directly affected by this disease ([1]). If an average figure is taken, this comes to 2.5 million people living with HIV and AIDS. The concern is that the prevalence is high in the 15-49 age group (88.7 percent of all infections), indicating that AIDS still threatens the cream of society, those in the prime of their working life.


Given the high costs of the life-long treatment of HIV and AIDS, traditional approaches to financing care and treatment are insufficient. The Government of Gujarat had taken up initial actions to design a health insurance scheme for HIV positive in Gujarat. To support the government’s action, Gujarat State Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS with support of Institute of Public Health, Bangalore proactively took up a study among the HIV positive and their families to understand the household profile, socio-economic profile, disease profile of target group, health seeking behaviour including accessibility to anti-retro viral treatment (ARV), utilization of health care facilities, cost of care, source of financing health care, awareness of health insurance and their willingness and ability to pay for an insurance cover.



The study shows there is an urgent a high need of health insurance for HIV positive and their families. The cost of care has compelled the families to sale their assets, forgo children education and food.

It is proposed to organize a one day workshop with support from Gujarat State AIDS Control Society on 28th October,09 with an objective to:

· Understand the work done and problems faced by state government on health insurance for HIV positive

· Share the findings of the study conducted by GSNP+ and IPH

· Understand the concepts of insurance from the experts

· Understand other schemes implemented for health insurance of HIV positive in the country

· Finally design a scheme that is feasible for Gujarat.



It is proposed to call 5 experts of the field, all funding agencies representative, all insurance companies’ representative, NGO representative of Gujarat and state government officers. Institute of Public Health and GSNP+ can support technically for organizing the workshop.