By Jitin Bhasin
Riddhi (name changed), a PR professional from Delhi can’t stop smiling after her dental makeover, and this is not just a result of her newfound confidence but also because of how seamlessly she could avail a long overdue, expensive treatment just before her wedding, without burning a hole in her pocket. She had been delaying this treatment for years since her health insurance did not cover it, but this time instead of having to pay for the makeover in a lump sum, she could simply opt for a zero downpayment payment plan at a posh dental chain near her, where she could stagger the entire expense in installments over 12 months in a completely paperless, hassle-free process that took less than three minutes!
Welcome to the world of new-age healthcare, where more and more Indians are discovering freedom from the ghosts of expensive healthcare bills by using embedded finance solutions at top healthcare practices across the country.
Painless healthcare payments are the need of the hour
It is common knowledge that many times, the high upfront cost of availing timely healthcare treatments is far more painful than the treatment itself. This can’t be truer in the Indian context where over 75 percent of healthcare expenses are borne out-of-pocket, thereby significantly impacting the personal savings of millions of individuals and households.
India has made major advancements in the field of banking, payments, and penetration of personal credit. Over eight hundred million people in India have a bank account, over two hundred million have demonstrable footprint in credit bureaus and close to a hundred million credit cards are in circulation in the Indian market. Digital identity and underwriting solutions are enabling financial institutions to assess credit worthiness of Indians in real time thereby fuelling the advancements in embedded finance.
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Therefore, millions of these banked customers can benefit from the availability of on-demand credit through the banking, credit card and non-banking channels while significantly easing the problem of upfront payments, by enabling people to split expenses into easy monthly installments, thereby fuelling consumption of healthcare products and services that are not covered by classical insurance.
Fintech meets healthcare, fuelling consumption
Historically Indians have bought their favourite mobile phones, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other consumer durables by using easy finance options but now such options are disrupting how Indians access and consume private health care and wellness treatments.
After Covid-19, millions of Indians have understood the importance of personal health and are now unwilling to compromise on prioritizing preventive, wellness, and curative treatments overall above spend classes.
Indian startups have identified this vast gap and are now seen to be prioritising solving unmet needs in the healthcare space, with easy and affordable, monthly payment plans thereby making it a frictionless process.
This is an extremely enabling development both from provider and end-user perspectives and set to drive consumerism in personal health and wellness.
(The author is CEO and Founder of SaveIN. Views expressed are the author’s own and not necessarily those of financialexpress.com.)
