Thaindian News

Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) With studies showing positive risk profile of women for non-life insurers, the Pune-based Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd. plans to introduce gender based pricing of its health insurance products, said a top company official Thursday.

“As per our study, women in India have lower chance of suffering an illness. We plan to come out with a health insurance product where the pricing will be based on gender. In six-seven months, we will have the product ready,” managing director and CEO Tapan Singhel told reporters here.

Presently non-life insurers charge premium based on the prospect’s age and not on the basis of their sex while life insurers charge a higher premium rate for women.

Singhel said the premium charged for women will be lower than that of men.

He said the company earned around Rs.500 crore premium from health insurance portfolio.

“Our target is to grow the portfolio this year by around 25 percent. Out of the total health insurance portfolio, group insurance accounts for 60 percent and retail policyholders 40 percent. In terms of claims experience, the group business has the claims ratio of 93 percent while in the individual segment it is 83 percent,” Singhel said.

He said health insurance portfolio is set to grow as the penetration levels are currently very low.

Only 15 percent of the 1.1 billion population is covered under health insurance, majority of which is a group medical cover.

He said the Indian health insurance sector is projected to grow at 25 percent to touch a premium figure of Rs.32,500 crore by 2015 from Rs.13,345 crore logged in 2011-12.