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BC Patnaik, Member (Life), IRDAI said that the insurance regulator focuses on adding more metrics like number of senior citizens, business owners and so on to make insurance affordable for all. He was speaking at an Assocham event held recently in Mumbai.
The IRDAI Member said, “To accomplish the vision of ‘Insurance for All’, we are thinking of adding more metrics based on percentage of population, societies, occupations, villages, muhallahs, number of senior citizens covered, number of business owners covered, number of homes covered. We are working at a very fast pace."
Patnaik further said that India's insurance sector will have to grow at 3-4 times the country's GDP growth with the help of technology-led innovative products and cost-effective distribution models across the country. He said, “Many companies are now flooding rural areas as they see value in these markets. They say they will have a cost-effective distribution model and saturate the market. Within 5-10 years all these markets will be saturated as companies have become aggressive."
“India has the potential of getting Rs 15 lakh crore premium from the existing model for which the growth required from current levels is around 200%. If in a single year, we do 200% growth and maintain it then perhaps we can bridge the gap. If not 200% if 40-50% then over a period of 10 years the gap will be bridged. Health insurance per capita spend in India is $5 while in China it is $66. Out of pocket health expenditure is the major reason for pushing people into poverty. World health insurance penetration as a percentage of GDP is 2% but in India it is only 0.4%," added Patnaik.