World Diabetes Day is celebrated on November’14, Let us work towards diabetes prevention.

We as an Insurance Brokerage Firm have been always guiding our clients on importance of preventive cure in avoiding / keeping diabetes under control. Buying Health Insurance does not mean that we can neglect our responsibility of preventive care .It was interesting to see an informative article on diabetes prevention in Mint-Nov 12, 2013. According to it:

Eating of following:

• Apples and Avocado
• Jamun ( fruit)
• Karela (vegetable) Bitter Gourd
• Beans
•  Barley
• Cinnamon
• Walnuts
• Egg whites
• Pumpkin seeds
• Green tea
• Grapes
• Fenugreek
• Take in more vitamin C like Oranges, Strawberries, Amla, Lime and Broccoli
• Take diet full of green vegetables and fruits
• Kiwi
• Vinegar
• Salmon

Do not eat / avoid as far as possible

• Trans fats 

Reduce consumption of following significantly or bring it near to zero

• Sugar / sweets
• Alcohol
• Animal protein i.e. Chicken etc.

Do

• Walk in the morning for 60 minutes, if possible bare foot on grass
• Practice Yoga
• Zero in on your weight
• Regular exercise
• Meditation

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• Healthy habits of healthy people around you and translate them into your life

We appreciate the focus of Mint on guiding it’s readers with such informative articles.

Do Hospitals overcharge from Health Insurance Patients?

We have been always hearing or reading that moment hospitals come to know that patient bills are to be paid by Health Insurance / General Insurance Company – they are very happy and they start overcharging. Insurance Foundation of India had brought out a cartoon in 2009 (www.healthinsuranceindia.org) which was highly appreciated by large number of people.





But Times of India carried a news during this week (September last week 2013) which is fact revealing as it proved whit facts & figures that if you are not covered then you are in a disadvantageous position and will end up paying very high.



We come to conclusion that with time market scenario changes and as a result of the same our belief also changes.
It is a good fact to know from this news and we will like more and more people will buy Health Insurance to protect their savings.

How to control Passive Smokers?

Should Health Insurance Premium be adjusted?

Sometimes you come across interesting facts in publications. Economics Times Wealth August 18-24, 2013 has carried the following information

56% is the difference between the premium of a smoker and a non-smoker for a life insurance policy. The question before us is:

If Life Insurance Industry penalizes a person by 56% then what is the figure for Health Insurance? Why not penalize family members / colleagues who are passive smokers and are being compelled to smoke? May be this will result in reduction of smokers in our country.

Indian Health Insurance Market- 2012-2013

Health Insurance Market continues to be loss making portfolio during 2012-2013

Estimates of Indian Health Insurance Market for the year ending March 31, 2013 are now available and according to it this market has touched figure of Rs.15341 Crores.

Overall loss during the year is Rs.1533 crores.

Corporate portfolio and Group Government portfolio (Schemes like RSBY,) continue to be a loss making portfolio. Retail portfolio continues to be the segment where insurance companies have been successful in reducing the claims figures by following rigid norms. May be the decision of PSU’s to go in for strictness i.e. July 1, 2010 and strengthening of PPN has resulted in good results.

Indications are that State Governments will not increase ( as it was happening 2 years back ) their budget for schemes / subsidy. As on now we are aware of that 4 PSU’s are increasing the premium in Retail segment by 30% (during 2^nd half of 2013). Will it result in increase in Revenue or it can result in some of the clients not renewing their policies.

Health Insurance Portfolio – An Analysis

Few years back we were very enthusiastic about the growth of Health Insurance portfolio. This was especially true during 2007-08, when this portfolio grew from Rs 3210 Cr to Rs 5110 Cr. i.e by 59.20%. Let us look at the growth figures from 2006 to 2013:

% Growth of Health Insurance over the Years

Year	Amount (Rs Crores)	% Growth
2006-2007	3210	14.45
2007-2008	5110	59.20
2008-2009	6634	29.82
2009-2010	8305	25.68
2010-2011	11480	38.22
2011-2012	13184	14.84
2012-2013	15341	16.36

We have drawn graph showing the % growth YOY and, it shows that figure is fluctuating and is becoming less and less attractive as the years have passed by.

Let us try to make projections for next 6 years.

We have done this with growth rate of 12%, 20%, 30% & 60%.

If we achieve figure of 30% then the portfolio will be Rs 56960 Cr. in 2017-2018.

If some one asks me- What should be the growth with which you I will be happy?- I will say it should not be 30% gross but it should be 30% net (as we have to discount for inflation of 10% per annum in normal costs and 20% per annum in health care costs). Let us not be satisfied with meager growth of 16%- let us aim for 60%.

It means we should have growth of 60% year over year and then the figure will reach Rs 160862 crores in 2017-18

Good idea to buy Health Insurance for your support staff.

Good idea to buy Health Insurance for your support staff.

Nikhil Dwivedi has done a good thing by buying Health Insurance for his employees as well as families. He has got good appreciation for his gesture.

Times of India is leading a campaign with focus on Compassion.

“Make Compassion your passion on 28^th June” is a good theme. On that day or nay other day in the year you as an individual can do something for your support staff (Servant, Maid Servant, Driver, Mali, Gardener, Chowkidar or Guard) by giving them gift of insurance policy.

All these efforts deserve appreciation.

Insurance Foundation of India a Not for Profit Organization is doing good work in spreading the message of Insurance among masses (www.ifingo.org) and has been  making NGO’s aware of Micro Insurance & Social Insurance. Recently a Conference was held in Delhi in association with PHD Chamber of Commerce, where large number of NGO’s attended the conference.

What we have to say it

1. Nikhil Dwivedi

2. Times of India

3. Insurance Foundation of India

                

or any one who is giving Health Insurance or other insurance policy to his/her support staff deserves appreciation.

30% Increase in Health Insurance Premium

30% Increase in Health Insurance Premium 

It was anticipated for quite sometime that Health insurance Premium will go up as inflation has been affecting the costs of Insurance companies.

In next few months (second half of 2013) let us be prepared for increase in premium of the order of 30% in following companies:

New India Assurance                 August 2013

National Insurance                     October 2013

Oriental Insurance                     October 2013

United India                               June 2013

According to the Mr. N.S.R.Chandraprasad Chairman , National Insurance Company Ltd  – “ This increase is coming after 6 years as last time it was done was in 2007 “

We appreciate the increase in premium so that Health Insurance Portfolio should not be a loss making portfolio. In fact no portfolio should be a loss making portfolio.

One thing which we do not understand – why do Insurance Companies do aggressive pricing when it comes to quote for Group Health Insurance? Corrective steps are needed to control this practice so that Group Health Insurance Portfolio should also be a profit making portfolio. Claims at 125% of the premium are not acceptable.

Recently we came across a case where claims during 2012-13 were Rs.13.5 lakhs but another company picked up the business by quoting Rs.9.80 lakhs. We feel individuals / families are being penalized for this Group Business.

It is time strict steps are taken to correct this.