Max Bupa Health Insurance to infuse Rs 550 cr in five yrs

Max Bupa Health Insurance, a new entrant in health insurance sector in the country, plans to infuse around Rs 550 crore in the next five years, a top company official said.

"Our current paid-up capital is Rs 151 crore and we plan to take it up to Rs 700 crore over a period of five years," Max Bupa Health Chief Executive, Damien Marmion, told PTI here.

The company has also chalked-out a plan to increase its presence in the country during the year.

"Currently, our headcount is 400 and we will take it up to 600 by the end-this year. We will also increase our agent strength to 3,000 from the present 500 during the fiscal," Marmion said.

The third stand-alone health insurance company is a joint venture between health-care major, Max, and British health insurer, Bupa.

The other two stand-alone health insurance companies in India are Star Health and Allied Insurance and Apollo Munich Health Insurance.

"For us, our Unique Selling Proposition (USP) will be our products which will focus more on family and our services," he said.

Instead of appointing a third-party administrator, the company would service its customers' claims directly, he said.
Max Bupa has launched one product in the individual retail segment known as Heartbeat Health Insurance Plan.

The plan, which does not have any minimum or maximum age for enrolment, is available in three different levels of cover -- silver, gold and platinium.

The company also plans to launch another product in the similar category, Marmion said.

Max Bupa which has initially started its operations in six major cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune -- would start operations in three more cities this fiscal, Marmion said.

"We will be launching our operations in three more cities -- Surat, Ludhiana and Jaipur in the current fiscal," he said.