Catching them young could be a good way of expanding the health insurance net, suggests a new study.
The study done by Foundation of Research, Training and Education (FORTE) — a joint initiative of FICCI and ING insurance — has urged for mandatory health insurance from nursery to college level, among other steps.
Healthcare delivery infrastructure
It recommends strengthening of healthcare delivery infrastructure through more public private partnerships and fiscal incentives. It also suggests that the medical fraternity standardise treatment protocols with cost indicators, so that customers can benchmark prices of a procedure. And, it has called for portability of health insurance policies.
Together, these recommendations could add 14 crore more people to the pool of those with health insurance, claims the study.
“Government regulator and industry should work in tandem to strengthen healthcare infrastructure and encourage additional sales channels to serve the consumer,” said Mr Aloke Gupta, Consultant FORTE, releasing the study at FICCI on Friday.
The health insurance industry has penetrated less than five per cent of the population. “Even adjusting for below- poverty line families, those covered by government schemes and excluding those in rural areas, 14.3 crore people in urban areas alone remain untouched by any form of health insurance,” says the report.
To unlock this latent demand, the study proposes a multi-pronged approach which encompasses policy level interventions by the regulator and initiatives by the insurance industry and its associated partners.