BigDecisions Health Research Report 2016 reveals that 82.2% of Indians do not have Health Insurance
Underinsurance level for families of 4 or more is at a staggering average 49%
MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI 20th December 2016: News Corp-owned BigDecisions.com, India’s leading personal finance advisory platform, has today announced the release of its Health Research Report 2016 titled ‘Healthcare and the Indian Consumer- Unaware and Unprepared’.
The report is the result of a survey of 30,000 users of BigDecisions.com’s Health Insurance Calculator falling under the annual salary bracket of Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 36 lakh over a 12-month period across India. The focus of the report is largely on the survey findings of respondents from five metro cities of Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata to test the hypothesis of whether people with higher disposable incomes have adequate health insurance cover or not.
Key Insights of the News Corp BigDecisions.com Health Research Report 2016
· 82.2% of urban middle-income Indians do not have health insurance. Of the 17.8% who have health cover, it is adequate to meet less than 67% of their expenses related to potential medical contingencies.
Health Insurance Coverage by Age
· Indians in the 25-35 year age bracket have a better extent of health insurance cover owing to health plans provided by employers, having fewer dependents and being less prone to illnesses. They are able to meet 69% of their healthcare contingency expenses.
· Those in the age brackets of 36-45 and above 45 are able to cover only 63% and 67% of their future healthcare expenses. Indians who are aged above 45 are at highest risk due to- greater healthcare needs, potential loss of regular income and lack of eligibility for company-provided insurance.
Health Insurance Coverage by Family Size
· The bigger the family size, the less adequate the coverage. Users with health insurance who have four or more family members are also a high-risk group, with an insurance cover of an average 51% of their medical emergency requirements.
· Families of two and three members have an insurance coverage of 67% and 73% respectively.
Health Insurance Coverage by Geography
· Users from Kolkata in the 25-35 age bracket have the best extent of health insurance cover at 81% in 2016. Last year, it was at 65%.
· Kolkata again topped the charts for health insurance cover for users in the 36-45 age bracket with a coverage of 73% this year as against 63% last year.
· Mumbai, on the other hand, saw the extent of health insurance cover fall from 67% to 58% over the last year for users in the 25-35 age bracket. For the age bracket of 36-45, the extent of coverage has seen a fall from 63% in 2015 to 55% this year.
· Chennai and Kolkata are the two cities which have witnessed the maximum fall in health insurance coverage in the past year for users in the age category of 45 and above. Kolkata has seen a drop from 72% in 2015 to 57% in 2016, while Chennai saw the extent of coverage fall from 71% in 2015 to 57% in 2016 for users above the age of 45.
Inadequate coverage means a greater out of pocket expense
· An evaluation of 9,00,000 claims over five years showed a strong dip in claims received vs actual treatment cost. The gap increased when costs exceeded Rs. 3 lakh per treatment. For instance, in 2015 for a treatment cost below Rs. 3 lakh 85% of claims were received; whereas, for a Rs. 10 lakh treatment only 30% claims were received.
Rising Healthcare Costs – Is Health Insurance also becoming expensive?
· Inflation has played a role in making healthcare more expensive. Treatment of communicable diseases has turned dearer by over 9.3% annually while that of circulatory system related diseases have increased anywhere from 2-13% per year between 2011-2016 depending on the city one lives in.
· A substantial increase in the cost of health insurance premiums in the range of 9-16% by a family of two post the age of 35 has been observed. For a family of four, a marginal increase of 7-8% in the cost of health insurance premiums has been observed till the age of 40, post which premium costs can spike by over 10%.
· The figures indicate that it’s cost effective for consumers to purchase health insurance at an early age.
Speaking on the report findings, Manish Shah, CoFounder and CEO, BigDecisions.com said, “The insights from our report clearly indicate that ‘Health isn’t Wealth’ for a vast majority of urban Indians who do not realise that they are underprepared to meet expenses related to potential health crises in the future. What we are aiming to do with this report is to educate them on two fronts; one, the inadequacy of their insurance cover that they have at present for meeting future exigencies and two, emphasise the greater need to be financially prepared for medical care as they grow in terms of age and family.”
“India’s $100 billion healthcare industry is expected to double by 2020 to $280 billion on the back of growth in healthcare expenditure at a CAGR of 5% to $ 68.6 billion, rising incomes and access to high-quality healthcare infrastructure and services,” said Gaurav Roy, Co-Founder and Product Head, BigDecisions.com. He added, “Our 2016 healthcare report will hopefully serve as a call to action for Indians to take the necessary steps to protect themselves and their families by availing health insurance adequate for their future need. Insurance companies too can play their part in educating potential customers and matching their needs with the right product offerings.”
About BigDecisions.com
A NewsCorp company, BigDecisions.com is a comprehensive platform that introduces consumers to easy and interactive decision-making tools, powered by sophisticated data backed algorithms allowing Indian consumers to make better and unbiased financial decisions. The platform has decisionmaking tools and related content for 6 categories of personal finance: education, life insurance, health insurance, housing, home loans, tax planning and retirement.
About News Corp
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate services, cable network programming and pay-TV distribution. More information is available at http://www.newscorp.com. In India, News Corp owns Mosaic Media - the parent of News Corp VCCircle, BigDecisions.com, and is the largest shareholder in Elara, the Singapore-based parent of PropTiger.com and Makaan.com.