The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (Irdai’s) move to set up a committee for studying the feasibility of allowing life insurance companies to offer indemnity-based health insurance policies has sparked a debate in the industry. The overarching view is that standalone health insurers would lose the most in this scenario.
Non-life insurers would not be affected severely as they could focus on other segments. Within the health segment, they could also look at selling more benefit-based products, which thus far formed a minuscule portion of their health business, experts said.
“It is likely to impact standalone health insurers more than multi-line insurers, since the latter have other products to offer in the market,” said Subramanyam Brahmajoysula, head-underwriting and reinsurance, SBI General Insurance. “Life insurance firms have a superior distribution network. Health insurance indemnity policies can be complex and in-depth knowledge of the product features is required to provide appropriate advice to customers. This is an area where non-life insurance advisors might have an advantage, at least initially.”
via Life insurers to sell health policies? Standalone cos to lose, say experts | Business Standard News
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