Page 12 - Insurance Times August 2019

Citigroup extends health AYUSH Ministry substantially underfunded, says minister

coverage to live-in part- Shripad Yesso Naik, the Minister of State (Independent charge for AYUSH), has
recently stated that said the Ministry of AYUSH is sub-
ners, LGBT employees stantially underfunded. He further added that in order
In a bid to take more inclusive em- to take up AYUSH healthcare activities, the ministry fell
plo y e e short of funds since the activities included drug quality
policy , control, production of herbal raw-material and other
Citigroup related works.
Inc has Naik also reported the Commission regarding the inad-
taken the equacy of funds received by State AYUSH Departments.
initiative “Most of the State AYUSH Departments did not receive funds from special
to extend sources like the 14th Finance Commission award. The central grant –in-aid al-
its health insurance coverage all do- located under National AYUSH Mission (NAM) to States and UTs also remains
mestic partners, including live-in insufficient and inadequate due to small size of NAM Scheme,” said Naik.
partners and LGBT partners in India.
However, there are several compa- He further added, “Administrative framework to oversee the implementation
nies already offer similar policies to of AYUSH health care programmes at the State level is inadequate in most of
members of the LGBT community. the States and UTs. It severely hinders the quality and quantity of AYUSH
Godrej Group, Accenture and IBM healthcare services delivery in the underserved and unserved areas.”
are some of the companies which The following recommendations to the Commission have also been made by
already offer medical insurance to the ministry. “A minimum of 10 % of the Health sector grant earmarked under
same-sex partners of their LGBTQ 15th Finance Commission award be dedicated to AYUSH Departments in States.
employees. The existing CSS (NAM) should be allowed to continue with more comprehen-
sive objectives and enhanced funding,” he said.
Business sponsor of the Citi India
Pride Network, Padmaja Chakravart, He made further suggestion that funds, instead of being routed through the
stated that the company is extend- treasury, should directly be placed with implementing agencies. Also, indica-
ing the medical insurance benefits to tors for development of AYUSH may also be adopted as one of the criteria for
domestic partners of their employ- devolution of funds to States.
ees that includes partners of the
same sex or otherwise, who live to- Digit Insurance to offer health insurance soon
gether.
Digit Insurance is likely to enter into the health insurance segment soon. The
While most companies in India do company is currently dealing in international travel insurance, motor insurance,
not offer insurance cover to unmar- home insurance and mobile insurance, will sell medical policies as well. Vivek
ried or live-in partners of hetero- Chaturvedi, head of marketing and direct (online) sales, Digit Insurance stated
sexual employees. Citibank sets itself that they will launch their health insurance product in the next few days.
as an example.
According to IRDAI, Digit had recorded a gross written premium of Rs 460.03 crore
According to the experts, such cov- in the June quarter (Q1), which is a 338.83 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth.
erage is not easy for a standalone "Motor was a difficult business to crack. However, we wanted our claims settle-
customer since insurance companies ment to be our USP," Vivek said while motor explaining about his business. He
ask for some kind of proof. However, further informed that have simplified their policy document. "We created bite-
if the coverage is part of a group sized documents for our products and also started testing it with 15-year-old
insurance policy then the company children. The idea was that if a 15-year-old child can understand the product
takes the responsibility. Citigroup's features/documents, any regular customer will also be able to understand. If it is
Pride Network was set up to create complicated, we also rewrite the documents accordingly," he added.
a more diverse organisation. The
The company also has a net promoter score of 77 which reflects how satisfied
network organises open houses and
a customer is with the company's services and the index ranges from -100 to
gets all its employees together to
100. Digit relies on technology for claims settlement as well. Chaturvedi said
generate awareness among many that their mobile application makes it easier to settle claims as the documents
other things.
and pictures of damaged vehicles can be uploaded on this platform.
12 The Insurance Times, August 2019