Standalone health insurance cos gain mktshare by 120 bps in 2021

Chennai: Heavily driven by health insurance premium underwritten post second Covid-19 wave in May, 2021, standalone health insurance companies gained market share by 120 bps in 2021, as compared to the previous year.

For the calendar year 2021, market share of standalone health insurance companies increased to 8.8% from 7.3% at the end of 2020. In the same period, the state-owned or PSU non-life insurance companies’ share stayed flat at 42.2% as of December 2021, from 42.9% in December, 2020.

Share of specialized PSU insurers also saw marginally decline to 6.6% from 6.7% a year ago.

Under the non-life insurance category, private insurance companies such as ICICI Lombard grew its market share from 7.2% to 8.26%. In 2021, the only PSU insurer who bucked the trend and grew its market share was The New India Assurance Company Limited from 14.6% to 15.8%

This growth is largely attributed to scaling of health insurance business by privately owned players like ICICI Lombard, whose strategy to hire 1,000 employees to develop its retail health insurance business is good for the long term.

A research report of Kotak institutional equities said health Insurance would see sustained growth in premium and claims ratio to rise from January, 2022. Overall, premium underwritten in 2021 by non-life insurance companies grew by 11.18% at Rs 1,61,081 crore.

A senior official from the General Insurance Council says we have seen aggressive business expansion approach from private insurance companies, especially with increased digital adoption among consumers.

They have also gained credibility among the users who now purchase on online platform in the last few years. This is besides, continuous growth seen in distribution models such as bancassurance and agency models.

He added, health insurance business has contributed to this market share growth for private players, especially since the pandemic outbreak. The industry is now seeing some pick up in fire and property insurance with resumption of production activities in the second half of 2021. However, motor or vehicle insurance business has slowed down since last two years, with reduced sales.