To facilitate specially-abled people in tackling health and life risk, the authorities concerned are finally going to introduce insurance facilities for them.
A state owned company has already made all preparations to launch the insurance as Insurance for Autism and Neuro-Developmental Disabilities (NDD), said a social welfare ministry official.
On condition not to be named he said, “A good number of ministries and organizations are working relentlessly to start the pilot project of NDD insurance. A draft has been finalized to ink a deal between those ministries and organizations soon. We are hopeful it will come into effect soon.”
The government took the initiative in July 2019 to bring autism and neuro-developmental disabilities under insurance to address health and life-threatening damage. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Department of Financial Institutions, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) and the Sadharan Bima Corporation (SBC) are responsible for implementing this insurance scheme as a pilot project. However, the outbreak of the epidemic coronavirus troubled the introduction of the insurance plan.
Managing Director (MD) of SBC Syed Shahriyar Ahsan told the media, "We have completed all kinds of activities to introduce NDD health insurance. We are waiting for the approval by IDRA, and we will be able to launch the insurance scheme.”
We want these people (neuro-developmental disability) not to be neglected," he said. We want them to get this insurance claim money as their right in case of any inconvenience. We want to treat them as normal people and they only need encouragement.
According to the SBC, NDD health insurance will be launched on a trial basis for one year initially. The GIC will handle all activities related to the issue of this insurance policy. If the claim is raised, the General Insurance Corporation will send the money of the insurance claim directly to the insured as its own bank after verifying the required documents.
The SBC will take a risk of 110 per cent of the total premium, if in case the total insurance claim amount exceeds or exceeds the total premium income. Similarly, if the total claim amount is less than the total premium income, the GIC will repay the remaining 85 per cent to the NDD Protection Trust, leaving 15 per cent for administrative expenses from the dividend, as per the policy.
Under NDD Health Insurance, the same premium rate will be used for all insurance customers (Neuro-Developmental Disabled) in the initial stage of 3 to 25 years. However, the age limit can be relaxed to increase the coverage of insurance. According to the provisions of the Neuro-Developmental Disability Protection Trust Act 2013, people with autism, Down syndrome, intellectual disability and cerebral palsy will be given the same type of insurance benefits.
Neuro-developmental disability health insurance will not require any pre-insurance medical examination. According to the provisions of NDD Protection Trust Act 2013, every person with neuro developmental disability will be covered by this health insurance. The cost of OPD treatment at any government or private hospital of the insured will be borne by NDD Health Insurance. The maximum sum insured amount of the insurance claim will be paid before and after the hospitalization within the prescribed limit.
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The source said NDD Trust will select and list the verification and prepare an MIS (Management Information System) after confirming written consent from the customer (NDD's legal guardian) to issue insurance policy in favor of neuro-developmental disability. According to him, he will provide information to the SBC. The insured has to pay Know Your Customer (KYC) from NDD Trust to the SBC, which will be considered as final document after verification and selection and the insurer (SBC) will consider it as a promise of insurance cover.
Each insured will be paid Tk 25 from NDD Protection Trust to the authorized or registered company for enrollment and registration and Tk 40 from the income of each premium will be paid to the registered company approved for collection or collection of each premium, SBC official said.
The Ministry of Social Welfare, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), SBC, Neuro-Developmental Disability Protection Trust will initially launch the insurance scheme in the districts around Dhaka and in some areas of Sylhet. It will later be extended to areas where the Neuro-Developmental Disability Health Insurance Scheme can be successfully implemented, source said.
