Pune: Stating that penetration of health insurance in India is very low, Cigna TTK Health Insurance Managing Director & CEO Sandeep Patel said the company is trying to reach the grassroots in order to spread awareness about the same. In its efforts, Cigna TTK established a bancassurance partnership with Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) earlier this year.
The partnership, which was established in January this year, has already yielded success as Cigna has been able to issue 7,500 health policies and provide cover to over 20,000 BoM customers. Sharing details, BoM Executive Director Alekh Raut said, “Customers these days demand everything under one roof. It was essential for us to provide the option of health insurance to our customers. We have tied up with United India Insurance for general insurance and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for life insurance, only health insurance was missing.”
He said India is a highly under insured country and that awareness about insurance is only rising now. “Through our network of 1,896 branches and an almost equal number of ATMs, we will be able to spread awareness and help in penetration of health insurance among our customers. None of our customers will be force-sold the insurance and none of our employees will force-sell these policies,” he said.
Elaborating on bancassurances, Patel said it is a partnership model, which provides the capability to customise insurance for a bank's customers. “We have six bancassurance partners and 38 per cent or one third of our premiums comes from bancassurances. We have partnered with two nationalised banks, including BoM and Andhra Bank. Besides, we have partnered with cooperative banks, as we see that the section of the population, where insurance penetration is the least, transacts from cooperative banks. BoM is one of the oldest banks with a great penetration in Maharashtra and Western India. It will help in greater penetration of insurance in these areas,” he said.
Speaking about the opportunities for the company and the sector, Patel said, coupled with very low penetration of insurance, fast-growing middle class, eroding health status of people, unpredictable policy environment and regulatory climate and affordability and accessibility of insurances, the sector will get a boost.
