INDIA: Only 1% Indians Have Medical Insurance

PUNE (The Times Of India), November 25, 2007: By Gitesh Shelke & Rupa Chapalgaonkar, Times News Network Though the health insurance sector has recorded a healthy 38% growth during 2006-07, only 1.08% of the one billion Indians have secured medical insurance cover since 1986 when health insurance was first introduced in the country. Shortage of hospitals and insurance providers, poverty, lack of co-ordination between hospitals and insurance firms and people's belief in destiny have been cited as some of the reasons for the poor response. The potential market for health insurance is about Rs 30,000 crore, but, at present, it is just limited to Rs 1,400 crore. And moneywise, the health insurance sector stands at just 3% of the insurance sector. These are the findings of the latest study conducted by National Insurance Academy, one of the premier institutes in the insurance sector. K C Mishra, NIA director and member of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, told TOI that the data for the study was collected from 16 insurance companies providing medical insurance. Mishra said the medical insurance schemes have remained restricted to the five metropolitan cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. Mishra said there were restrictive players and not enough hospitals to enable people to take the benefit of the health insurance. "Very few people can afford to buy insurance policies due to poverty," he said, adding, "Also very few insurance firms have their branches in semi-urban and rural areas. Majority of the semi-urban and rural population remains neglected." "Besides, people tend to leave their health to their destiny instead of securing medical insurance cover," he said. Copyright © 2007 Times Internet Limited.