Incentives and discounts to make health insurance universal: Irdai

NEW DELHI: Irdai Chairman T S Vijayan said there is a need to incentivise people who are not inclined to buy health insurance in form of free check-ups or discounts as part of efforts to deepen market penetration in this particular segment.

The spending on healthcare is seen as a superior good and only taken by people who are risk-taking, so it is required to incentivise those who don't buy health insurance, Vijayan said at FICCI's Annual Health Conference.

"For the people who are risk averse, it is important to incentivize them by offering some value to them like free health check-ups or discounts, which will help in realising our goal to make health insurance universal," he said.

The New India Assurance CMD G Srinivasan, said it is a socio-economic challenge in India that health insurance is not accessible to all and it lacks sustainability as well.

Srinivasan who is also the Chairman of the FICCI Health Insurance Committee said health insurance sector can only grow, if it is commercially viable for all stakeholders.

UIDAI DDG for Enrollment & Updation Division and Direct Benefit Transfer Cell Narendra Bhooshan in his keynote address said Aadhaar is the biggest disruptor as well as enabler in digital society and health insurance sector is one of the biggest beneficiaries.

"Integrating Aadhaar with health insurance enrolment, beneficiary identification, claim processing, hospital reimbursement, E-KYC will ensure a paperless, cashless, interoperable, secure, healthcare ecosystem in the country, and ultimately help in the growth in the health insurance sector," Bhooshan said.

The Conference also saw release of FICCI-Quintiles IMS knowledge paper 'Health Insurance in Digital India' said the Unique Identification (UID) of stakeholders within healthcare ecosystem such as providers, diagnostic centers and doctors will play a critical role in the growth of digitisation of health insurance in India.

According to the study, digitization and IT are changing the landscape of healthcare and health insurance ecosystem in the country.

"This will enable seamless interoperability of data that will facilitate patient safety and lead to better patient outcomes. With the health insurance sector poised for major growth in the coming decade, demand for more efficient systems of data storage and transfer is set to increase," said the study.