Difference Maker

In Pakistan, Asher Hasan brings innovation to health-care cost, at $1.80 per month

Pakistan's low-income families can buy inexpensive health-care insurance through his Nava Jeevan (New Life) program.

By , / Correspondent

  • close
    Asher Hasan (striped shirt) stands with the staff of Naya Jeevan (New Life), a nonprofit health insurance program he founded and directs to help low-income workers in Pakistan. Dr. Hasan, a surgeon, left a successful career in the United States to address health-care inequities in his homeland.
    View Caption




Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?











Across the developing world, catastrophic illnesses can wreak havoc on families, who may be forced to sell their most valuable possessions or pull their children out of school to pay medical bills.




Pakistan's failure to bridge its rich-poor divide is a source of class resentment that some say plays into the hands of the country's extremists, including the Taliban. The killing in January of liberal politician Salman Taseer exposed the fault lines, as the wealthy English-speaking classes took to the streets to protest his death. Pakistan has not done enough to bring about "economic democracy," critics say – thus generating recruits for Islamist extremists.

The Naya Jeevan program isn't perfect. Outpatient care is not provided, pre-­existing conditions are covered only in certain cases, and the upper limit of $1,800 per year means patients may not be able to afford follow-up care after an expensive hospital stay, says Bokhari, the health economist.

"Incidentally, this was also a shortcoming of the early days of Medicare hospital coverage plans in the US," he adds.

Naya Jeevan has paid for such extra costs through donations. But Hasan hopes to expand the scope of the insurance plan over time. The program will reach a fiscal break-even point when 75,000 people are signed up, Hasan explains, almost six times the number of current participants.


• Naya Jeevan is at nayajeevan@njfk.org


Share this story:
