HEALTH INSURANCE: INDIA
Jay Bakshi runs his own digital marketing communications agency, Digiqom Solutions, from Gurugram in northern India. The organisation employs around 15 people, who were already functioning remotely when COVID-19 struck and the country went into lockdown. During March and April 2020, Bakshi worried about how he could protect his staff and maintain his business. Around that time, one of his advisors suggested buying affordable COVID-specific health insurance. “Traditionally, health insurances were long-term and expensive. But the group insurance I got for my team was not only affordable, the process of getting it was also quick and easy. Amidst all the uncertainty the pandemic threw at us, it ensured some cover in terms of treatment and medical costs,” explains Bakshi. He was among the first employers in the country to secure COVID insurance protection for employees and the product design was an important selling point. “The price of an individual policy might have deterred members of my staff from
COVID-19 has encouraged the Indian health insurtech segment to grow up. Product innovation and an emabling push from government is increasing reach and affordability, reports Swati Sanyal Tarafdar
getting one for themselves. But, as a corporate group, I could access a better package and I was willing to make that investment,” he explains. Among the few positive changes the pandemic forced on India’s population, embracing the utility of health insurances – in fact, insurance in general – has emerged as one. Back in 2013 a study showed that awareness, let alone uptake, of health insurance was very poor – only around one in six families had even heard of it. And yet, with only one per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) being spent on financing public healthcare at the time, treatments were expensive and put further stress on the vast majority of Indians’ household income. The same study showed that, in 40 per cent of cases, hospitalisation forced people to borrow heavily or sell assets to cover expenses. More recent research published in the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health (IJCMPH) in 2019, revealed that, among a sample of 550 people in two south Indian districts of Karnataka, 16 per cent were still completely ignorant of health insurance.
Meanwhile, 21 per cent were aware but did not have cover. Of those who had health insurance, only 25.57 per cent utilised it, the rest saying the process was too complicated (42%), or they were offered only partial coverage (24%), but most cited the non-availability of empanelled hospitals, diseases not being covered, or simply not knowing how to go about accessing insurance or claiming against it. There were also large differences in health insurance coverage between Indian states. Realising the importance of providing adequate coverage, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) promoted several low-cost or free insurance schemes for those at the bottom of the pyramid. In 2018, the Indian Government started the Ayushman Bharat scheme to provide free access to secondary and tertiary healthcare for those needing specialised treatment and hospitalisation. Jointly funded by the federal and state governments, this scheme was targeted to cover 40 per cent of the Indian population; but this still left a massive section excluded. The IRDAI chairman admitted: “Out-of-pocket expenditure on health in India is as high as 64 per cent... while health
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TheInsurtechMagazine | Issue 5
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