SAMPADA
The hub serves working families in Mumbai and Pune who earn a living but have no health cover. When someone falls ill, they would otherwise borrow from a moneylender at up to 120% a year.
At the hub, Sampada’s savings and loans sit beside the health services of Uplift Mutuals. A doctor looks at the illness before a loan is made, helps the family find the right care at the right price, and stays in touch while the loan is repaid.
Three products, used together. Savings come first where a family can plan ahead. A loan is there for treatment that cannot wait. Cover comes with every loan.
A maternity wallet helps a family save through pregnancy and the child’s first years. A health wallet builds savings for future treatment. Savings are collected at the member’s door.
For treatment that cannot wait, and for schooling. Loans of ₹5,000 to ₹50,000 are made without collateral and are backed by guarantors. Larger amounts, up to ₹5 lakh, are lent against gold at up to 80% of its value. Every member who borrows becomes a part-owner of the cooperative: a share contribution of 3% with each loan builds her shareholding. The rate also pays for part of the health services and the medical underwriting that come with every loan.
Cover comes with every loan, through Uplift Mutuals. It covers the borrower and her co-applicant, who may not be the patient, from the day the loan is paid out. Claims are decided by a committee of elected women members.
A family usually reaches us through a health worker, a health camp or the helpline. Before any money is lent, the case is checked for credit, for the treatment and its cost, and for what the household can afford to repay.
Most of these loans have nothing pledged against them. The protection comes from how the loan is made, and from the support around it.
The doctor’s review and help in finding a public hospital, a government scheme or a lower price mean that less is lent, and only for treatment that is needed.
The household’s income and existing loans are assessed, not only its credit score. The member chooses her own monthly repayment date, and every term is explained to the family at home and given in writing.
Compulsory savings build up while the loan is repaid and can be set against what is owed at the end. Guarantors from the same community stand behind loans made without collateral, and gold stands behind larger ones.
If the family is hit again, the insurance and the health team help within the limits of the cover, and a new repayment date can be agreed. Insurance supports the family; it does not guarantee repayment.
The cooperative’s audited accounts are on the financials page.
Membership, savings and loans; the credit check, the household check and the home visit; collections and accounts.
The doctors and health workers, the helpline, the network of hospitals and the health mutual insurance.
Eighteen posts across fourteen roles, about 12.6 full-time equivalents. Four posts are doctors — hub, helpline, triage and provider-networking — totalling 1.6 FTE of physician time per hub, provided through Uplift Mutuals. Clinical underwriting therefore costs the cooperative under two doctor-equivalents per hub.
| Role | FTE | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Health Financing Officers | 100% | 4 |
| Community Health Workers | 100% | 2 |
| Encoders | 100% | 2 |
| Health Wallets / Savings Officer | 100% | 1 |
| Hub Doctor | 100% | 1 |
| Hub Manager | 100% | 1 |
| Call Centre Officer | 25% | 1 |
| Medical Helpline Doctor | 20% | 1 |
| Medical Triage Doctor | 20% | 1 |
| Provider Networking Doctor | 20% | 1 |
| Area Manager — Emergency Medical Loans | 20% | 1 |
| Area Manager — Wallets & Insurance | 20% | 1 |
| Accounts Officer | 20% | 1 |
| Software Manager | 10% | 1 |
| Total per hub | 12.6 | 18 |
FTE means full-time equivalent. The hub has eighteen posts, but several are part-time or shared across hubs — a Health Financing Officer is at the hub full time, the Software Manager for a tenth of the week — so eighteen posts come to about 12.6 people’s worth of time.
Read how the health services work and how the cooperative is doing, or talk to us about a partnership.