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vipinlara's review
Investment Sector: Emerging Markets Submitted by Vipinlara 
8 months ago Add Tag |
In my opinion, commercial health insurance in India is still in its infancy, having started in 1986 with Mediclaim, the first hospitalization cover introduced by four public-sector non-life insurance companies. Point to be noted here is that Mediclaim and its private sector look-alikes make up whopping 95 per cent of the total policies sold at this moment of time.
In terms of statistic, total health premiums rise 44 per cent to Rs 3,198.83 crore in 2006-7 from Rs 2,222.09 crore in 2005-06. According to sources, the growth has accelerated last year to more than 50 per cent. Most of the experts that I have chatted with are of the opinion that health insurance along with motor insurance is one of the two fastest growing businesses. This is mainly because of the booming retail market for individual policies.
At present, insurance contributes only about 2 per cent of India’s health expenditure. According to recent study, less than 15 per cent of Indians enjoy some form of ‘third-party payment system’ for their health spends. In my opinion, standalone health insurance business can be one of the biggest drivers of access to healthcare in India.
The pivotal factor here is that no big private hospital can ignore the growing stream of insured patients. It has been noticed that insurers are also trying to address the issue of "claims leakage" wasteful or fraudulent use of the policies by the insuree by capping room rents and introducing co-payments. According to sources, increasing competition is also leading to product diversification. The general rule of thumb is that the more people you cover, the more economical premiums will become.
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