ICICI Pru prims health to be key growth driver

Having emerged as one of the core areas of ICICI Prudential Life's portfolio in the last couple of years, the company is putting its efforts behind the health vertical to make it one of its major growth drivers.

Among the plans are variants of the flagship products like critical illness, hospital care and a crisis cover plan that includes cancer and diabetes care. The company also plans to explore the health savings and reimbursement category in future.

Binay Agarwala, senior VP and head, health business and corporate strategy, ICICI Prudential Life told DNA Money, "As a strategic initiative, the organisation energy in terms of marketing, actuarial and operation is dedicated to the health insurance space. Although the ticket size is small, the volumes have grown."

At present, over 10% of policies sold by the company are health policies.

What about competition from other private players also getting into health space?

"The idea is to make the bulk of sales beyond the Top 10 cities and this would be the major differentiator," Agarwala said, adding: "For many such customers, this will be the first of any health policy. We've created a comprehensive distribution scale by reaching out to 1,600 locations across India."

The health segment, which is dominated by indemnity plans (mediclaim) from general insurers, has seen the entry of almost all life players and has grown five-fold to Rs 5,000 crore from Rs 1,000 crore five years ago. Last year, health insurance business grew 63%.

"In the current year, there could be improved versions of some of our existing products like Diabetes Care. We will also think of new offerings keeping in mind the market dynamics and also profitability to both the customer and the company," Agarwala said.

Two new areas the company is likely to weigh are the savings-linked insurance plans and the reimbursement category. Both would help increase penetration of health insurance.

Internationally, health insurance with savings is a growing segment. But for this, much would depend whether health insurance plans qualify for tax benefits under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act.

Source: Nandini Goswami / DNA MONEY