Public health insurance for extremely poor and excluded in Honduras

Abstract

The study seeks to determine the financial and operational feasibility in the creation of health insurance for people living in extreme poverty and segregated groups in Honduras. Experiences and models from other countries in the region were analyzed for their adaptation to Honduras. The population selected is limited to eight departments or states: Choluteca, Copán, Gracias a Dios, Intibucá, La Paz, Lempira, Santa Bárbara, and Yoro. The research defines health benefits according to the population’s basic needs and the country’s health framework. The proposed health insurance model is a private held company with closed memberships, compulsive funding sources, payments to the providers based on the demand, services provided by indirect provision with no free choice by the provider, and state regulated benefits. The estimated health insurance fee per person is L. 1,466 for the first year of implementation and the estimated payment for the total population is L. 2,714,454,728, which represents approximately 21% of the approved budget for the Ministry of Public Health in 2014. In summary, the payment per person is approximatelyUS $70, which is thecurrent average spent by the Secretary of Public health.