The health insurance industry should chalk out strategies to offer insurance protection and help poor pregnant woman in Tamil Nadu, according to Supriya Sahu, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Tamil Nadu Government.

Addressing a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized conference on ‘emerging trends in health insurance’ held here in Chennai, on last Saturday, she said out of the 11.5 lakh deliveries every year in Tamil Nadu, about 30 per cent of the mothers are from below the poverty line and lack any insurance protection. About three lakh women in the state give birth without any insurance cover for obstetrics risks. A good percentage of working women also face the chances of losing their jobs during childbirth, as most of them are forced to take two to three months leave.

While only 11 per cent of the childbirths happening in the Government hospitals are by caesarian section, rate of the same is about 40 per cent in private hospitals. This statistics could raise questions on the profit-oriented approach of many private hospitals. She noted that when the Government authorized a private nursing home in Dharmapuri to conduct caesarian operation for just Rs.1800 on an experimental basis, other private hospitals in the region were forced to reduce their fees to Rs.3000 from an exorbitant Rs.7000 and above for the same operation.

The Secretary urged the healthcare sector insurance players to urgently consider covering for neo-natal mortality and post-natal morbidity, to reduce the economic burden of numerous people in the state.

Dignitaries like Sangitha Reddy of the Apollo Hospitals group, V.Jagannathan, chairman and managing director of United India Insurance, S.V.Mony, vice chairman of AMP Sanmar Assurance etc attended the meeting.