Health insurer Cigna seeks India re-entry

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Mumbai, Oct 9: 2012. The country’s disease burden was around 37% higher than Brazil’s and 86% higher than China’s.

However, according to a recent Ernst & Young-Ficci study, healthcare insurance penetration in India is low, presenting a large opportunity for new entrants. Major health-related insurance schemes (ESIS, CGHS, group insurance, government schemes for the poor, community and voluntary insurance) cover only 12% of the Indian population. “Although private health insurance has grown at the rate of 40% per annum, low awareness, high premiums, and an inadequate and inefficient backend infrastructure has kept health insurance out of reach of a large part of the population,” the study adds.

There is a propensity to enhance health insurance coverage from 12% to 50% by 2015, E&Y says. In India, the share of private healthcare expenditure in total healthcare expenditure is 81%, while it is 56%, 61% and 38% for Brazil, China and Russia, respectively.