Care Health Insurance to launch rider to protect customers against inflation

Care Health Insurance, which was till recently Religare Health Insurance, plans to come up with a rider by the name ‘Care Shield’ to protect its customers against inflation, a top official said.

The rider, which will come out in October, will help adjust the sum assured/insured in a health insurance plan to the consumer price inflation (CPI), Anuj Gulati, Managing Director and CEO, Care Health Insurance, told BusinessLine .

Gulati said the proposed rider is a requirement in the market and is being designed based on the feedback the company had received from customers over the need for a product that would factor in inflation in the country.

“Our objective is to design products that we ourselves will buy. Earlier, people used to buy ₹1-lakh sum-insured plans — in today’s day and age, this is inadequate. Even a ₹10-lakh cover may be inadequate in future. How do we protect them from inflation and healthcare costs. We have acted on the feedback of customers and are trying to solve this through our rider, which will be available along with all our retail offerings,” he said.

Gulati said there is strong demand for health insurance products due to the heightened awareness around Covid-19. He said the health insurance industry — which saw muted performance in April and May — has been clocking over 30 per cent growth since June, and this trend is expected to continue this fiscal due to the strong demand for health insurance products. In the recent years, health insurance has been clocking compounded annual growth of over 20 per cent.

Gulati sees Care Health Insurance mirroring the current growth trends of the health insurance industry, if not outperforming it, in the coming days. The health insurer plans to leverage technology to grow its business and has 5 lakh customers using its mobile app.

Listing plans

Gulati said Care Health Insurance — which concluded a funding round in June, with PE firm Kedaara Capital pumping in ₹567.3 crore, including primary infusion of ₹300 crore — is well capitalised for now. At the same time, he also confirmed that discussions are on now with the Board and shareholders of Care Health Insurance to go in for public listing of shares.

“We have not put down a detailed plan in terms of a timeline for the IPO. As against the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) norm of 1.5 per cent solvency, we have today done 2.7 per cent. I don’t need capital today. Given the growth rate in the sector, over the next couple of years, we will need growth capital. We would want the pandemic to settle down before we take a decision on the timeline (for the IPO and listing).”.

Last financial year, Religare Health Insurance had recorded about ₹2,400 crore in revenue. Business has been profitable for the past couple of years, Gulati said.