Guest Lecture – Mr. Anand Roy

Guest Lecture on Health Insurance Industry in India

Date: 15^th May 2021

Speaker: Mr. Anand Roy, Managing Director – Start Health and Allied Insurance Co. Ltd.

The lecture started with an introduction to the Health Insurance sector in India. The penetration of the health industry in India is less compared to other countries and stands at a mere 34% in India. While speaking about different types of insurance, Mr. Anand said that ‘Trust’ is the paramount factor in the sector. He informed the students that while Life Insurance covers mortality or death, General Insurance is a broad space that covers everything other than life. Health insurance is a big part of general insurance and has shown a high growth rate through the last few years. Since medical inflation is almost twice that of general insurance, it’s a great challenge for the lower-income and middle-income group to pay the premiums.

Considering all these factors, Star Health introduced its products through agency and consultants because health insurance requires a lot of trust from customers. They tried to target the lower-middle-class group because they are the largest segment in India which needs the backup of health insurance in times of need and can afford health insurance with a decent premium. Since distribution is the king for deep penetration, Star Health’s focus was to have an expansive network of branches all over the country. They went through agency rate as it is a consultative business where advisory is paramount. They even introduced services for outliers which, were not being covered by other health insurance companies. They even covered insurance for different diseases which were not easily insured, like Cancer, HIV, Autism, Covid, etc. These services are what Star Health refers to as their value proposition or core offering that makes them stand out among the competition.

The session came to an end with a Q & A session from the students.