We’re excited to announce the launch of reach52’s first health services in India, providing affordable health insurance for a rural population of over 150,000 people across Karnataka through our reach52 marketplace service. reach52 has partnered with non-governmental organisations MYRADA and MYKAPS to equip their field teams as reach52 marketplace managers who will drive awareness of the new service and support residents in ordering insurance plans through the reach52 marketplace mobile app. For the first phase of the roll out, the insurance plans have been provided by Aditya Birla, providing affordable hospitalization and personal accident coverage for both individuals and families.
Out of pocket health expenses remain high in Karnataka at 74.3% of the population, with many families unable to afford the cost of hospital treatments. Current public and private insurance options for these rural communities have been limited up to now, meaning people are a left with the choice of going without or disastrous expenditures that can wreck livelihoods. reach52’s marketplace of simple, affordable insurance plans enables parents to protect the ones they love when they get sick or suffer injuries, whilst avoiding these catastrophic costs.
The World Health Organization estimates that in 2020, approximately 1 billion people (almost 13 per cent of the global population) will be spending at least 10% of their household budgets on healthcare. The situation is likely to be compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the World Bank estimating almost 50 million more people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year. In fulfilling our ambition to deliver healthcare for the 52% of the world who can’t access it, reach52 has made health financial protection a key priority and already delivers insurance services across the Philippines and Cambodia.
The launch of insurance services is part of a significant expansion of reach52’s health services on-the-ground in India. At the end of 2019, reach52 received funding from the DBS Foundation to establish its new India-based operations. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have accelerated launch plans to reach underserved rural populations in Karnataka with the affordable health products and services they need. Alongside insurance, affordable medicines and over-the-counter products will be also be launched through reach52 marketplace across districts in Karnataka in the last quarter of 2020.
Ed Booty, reach52 CEO comments “We’ve always wanted to move the needle in global health, and our launch into India is a critical step towards that. Whilst the government has made strong efforts to improve UHC, the out-of-pocket and non-communicable disease burdens remain stubbornly high across India. We are pleased that we can start to play a part in improving this, and look forward to both our NGO and government collaborations. I’d also like to thank DBS Foundation for providing the capital for us to do this”
reach52 is partnering with many leading organisations (Insurance, Pharma, MedTech and Consumer Health) to expand access and grow their portfolio into previously unreachable rural markets across South and South East Asia. If you’re interested in partnering, please just get in contact.
Contact details: edward@reach52.com