40% Indians buying health insurance online opt for Rs-5lakh cover: Policybazaar study

Delhi-NCR consumers are the most active online, with nearly 25 per cent of the purchases made by them in the overall digital health insurance landscape.

New Delhi: Nearly four out of ten Indians purchasing health insurance online prefer a minimum cover of Rs. 5 Lakh, a study by Policybazaar.com Product and Innovation Centre (PIC) has revealed. The study took into account buying behaviour of 10,000+ consumers purchasing health insurance online across 20 states.

The study also indicated that Indian consumers have a preference for either buying Rs. 5 lakh cover online, or if they are buying lesser or higher cover, then they have a preference for Rs. 3 lakh or Rs. 10 lakh cover. While nearly 22% of consumers surveyed opted for Rs. 3 lakh cover, Rs. 10 lakh cover was opted by more than 12% of this survey audience.

In terms of age-related findings, the study indicated that consumers falling in the age bracket of 26-45 years are the ones who are most active online in health insurance purchases, with nearly 75 per cent of the survey audience belonging to this group, while 12 per cent of the online sales were attributed to people between the ages of 45-60 year bracket.

"Healthcare costs are rising at an astronomical rate. Today, any lifestyle disease treatment costs anywhere between Rs. 3-10 lakh in a decent private hospital in the urban areas. As such, what was an Rs 2-lakh average health cover bought two-three years back has become an Rs. 5-lakh cover today," said Head of Product and Innovation Centre (PIC), Policybazaar.com, Vaidyanathan Ramani.

"With growing awareness around the need for having a health cover and understanding of the existing treatment costs in hospitals, we expect the Indian consumer to opt for an even bigger umbrella to ensure a better protection for their family over the next few years," added Ramani.

Another major finding of the study revealed that Delhi-NCR consumers are the most active online, with nearly 25 per cent of the purchases made by them in the overall digital health insurance landscape. Maharashtra came a close second, with almost 20 per cent market share in health insurance purchases online. Other states featuring in the top 5 were Karnataka - 8 per cent, UP - 7 per cent and Gujarat - 5 per cent.

The overall findings are based on multiple demographic factors, which include the age-bracket of consumers, top-regions contributing to the online business, sum insured size, etc. as primary factors.