Social Health Insurance Scheme

Nepal has launched Social Health Insurance Scheme (SHIS), with an aim to achieve Universal Health Coverage for its citizens by 2030. The fact that the country has the extreme form of variability in socio-economic and human development, and while deeply established forms of inequity and exclusion still incapacitate us, the introduction of flat amount of contribution amount (NRs. 2500) for SHIS without considering this variability is far from being fair and just. The current situation demands a master plan that is precisely based on evidence generated at the local level so that the people from poor, marginalized and hard to reach areas of the country are exempted from paying the flat amount of contribution amount under SHIS. Therefore, the main intention behind this study was to reach the most economically disadvantaged, socially and geographically isolated population to explore the ways and means about how the newly introduced SHIS adapts to their already vulnerable conditions. Above all, the research somehow provided a real-time feedback to the concerned authorities about the amount of money that the marginalized adults of a village in Myagdi were willing to pay.