Page 14 - Insurance Times March 2022

Whole Time Director, MediAssist huge demand and during the second but the immediate spike may become
Healthcare Services, Covid-related wave, consumers opted for more com- more even. Also, health insurance will
claims had begun to stabilise in the prehensive products. continuously see growth in the next
October to December 2021 quarter Amit Chhabra, business head - health - two years with more comprehensive
and amounted to just three to four per Policybazaar.com, said, "We have seen products and services being included,"
cent of the total claims compared to a a robust increase in demand for health he added.
peak of 70 to 80 per cent in the sec- insurance products in the past few days
ond wave. as Covid cases have spiked across the Covid health cover claims
"In the third wave, we do see volumes country. "Leads for health products surge to Rs. 36K cr, most
with about 11 per cent to 12 per cent have gone up by 30 per cent, and daily
of our claims coming from Covid but premiums are up 45 per cent. The de- from Maharashtra
there is much lesser severity, and there mand for health products is steeper Insurance companies received 28.46
isn't a crisis situation as seen in the than what we have seen so far." lakh claims for Rs 36,003 crore in the
second wave," he said. "There is an organic demand for poli- last 22 months (till February 4) from
Both the duration of stay and average cies, which give early Covid coverage. people affected by the coronavirus,
claim amount were lower in the third Consumers are also looking for policies with claims worth Rs 4,300 crore com-
wave for the hospitalisation cases fa- that cover consumables or opting for ing in the last four months.
cilitated by MediAssist. riders. Even renewal persistence for Of this, insurers have settled 25.53 lakh
health insurance has gone up by al-
In January 2022, the average claim size most 3 per cent," he said. claims for Rs 23,595 crore to date for
for a Covid-related hospitalisation was the reason that Covid pandemic
Rs. 93,000 and the duration of stay was The health segment has grown by 29.2 started in March 2020, in accordance
six days, according to MediAssist for its per cent till November FY22, which is to figures compiled by the General In-
cases. more than double the growth of 12.7 surance Council. Companies have repu-
per cent witnessed in the correspond- diated 1.98 lakh claims for Rs 1,459
Demand for health insur- ing period of FY21. This has resulted crore to date. Maharashtra reported
in the health segment increasing its the utmost variety of claims at 9.3 lakh
ance products picks up market share from 25.9 per cent to for Rs 9,637 crore, adopted by Gujarat
pace 33.5 per cent. Standalone health in- with 3.44 lakh claims for Rs 4,345
surers have seen a better growth in
With Covid-19 cases across the country crore, and Tamil Nadu with 2.85 lakh
rising rapidly once again, demand for health premiums than their counter- claims for Rs 4,144 crore. Insurers
parts in the general insurance space.
health insurance products has spiked. This indicates that retail premiums are settled 8.46 lakh claims for Rs 6,511
Insurers are seeing an uptick in inquir- growing faster than the group busi- crore in Maharashtra.
ies for such products and underwriting ness. The common dimension of the Covid
more premiums in the segment. declare on the all- India degree works
"There has definitely been an increase
Already, health insurance was growing in demand for health insurance prod- out to Rs 1,26,467 whereas the dimen-
at a rapid pace since the onset of the ucts, inquiries have gone up, and these sions of the settled declare per particu-
pandemic as awareness around risk lar person is Rs 92,411. Indicating poor
are more from the younger genera-
had heightened among consumers. health cover penetration, insurers ac-
tion. With the experience of the two
But the country recorded more than earlier waves, people are looking at quired solely 93,386 claims for Rs 701
600,000 Covid-19 cases in the past more comprehensive policies, and not crore from Kerala, which reviews the
week, which is almost a six-fold rise restricting themselves to just Covid- most Covid circumstances now. The
than the previous week. common dimension of the declare
specific policies. They are also looking
Owing to this, the spike in demand for at more holistic health insurance poli- settled per particular person in Kerala
health insurance products is inevitable, cies and opting for required add-on can be one of many lowest at Rs
experts said. covers which can help them reduce 57,294. Uttar Pradesh accounted for
But the peculiar difference this time is out-of-pocket expenses," said Gurdeep the utmost quantity settled per par-
that consumers are looking for more Singh Batra, head of retail underwrit- ticular person at Rs 1,24,720.
holistic health products rather than the ing, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Telangana reported the very best com-
normal mediclaim policies. In the first "The demand for health insurance will mon per particular person Covid de-
wave, Covid-specific products were in not go down after the current wave, clare of Rs 183,670. T

14 The Insurance Times, March 2022