40% of poverty in India due to health disaster: Actuarial experts at Amity

Amity School of Insurance and Actuarial Sciences (ASIAS) organized workshop on “Health Insurance in India” for its students, at Amity University Campus, Sector – 125, Noida. The objective of the workshop was to encourage the future professionals of the Insurance Industry to understand “the need to analyze the existing Insurance products from both the consumer’s and Insurer’s point of view”.

Welcoming the experts from Milliman, Prof. R.R Grover, Director, ASIAS, informed “Milliman is the leader in providing actuarial and management consulting services to the health industry, helping clients balance the competing priorities in today’s healthcare environment. Known for their technical expertise and business acumen, Milliman provides a wide range of services to most of the leading health insurers, providers, government and other agencies.”

During his presentation Mr. Abhishek Agrawal, Actuarial Analyst, Milliman India Pvt. Ltd. said “Insurance is a business of pure risk and in India the whole risk lies with the Insurer. In UK, Canada and Australia there is existence of free or nearly free public system, where consumers prefer top up products- the purpose of which is to cover the cost for those services that are not included under the health Insurance.” Dwelling upon Health Savings Account (HSA), Mr. Agrawal explained that “HSA is where the individual can contribute into either current medical expenses or to save for future use and it is coupled with high deductible health plan to cover medical expenses in excess of deductible amount.” He added, “HSAs can be managed by companies, banks and financial institutions and at present it is highly popular in South Africa and more Insurance companies in India are likely to launch HSA products in the near future.”

Talking about why health insurance is different from other lines of business, Mr. Lalit Baveja, Sr. Healthcare Consultant, Milliman India Pvt. Ltd said “unlike other lines of business, health insurance involves a lot of complexity as it needs to take into consideration the kind of the disease and the severity and acuteness of the disease. The challenge for the future professionals of the industry is to grasp the nuances and uniqueness of health insurance and analyze its products from the seller’s perspective. The future professionals need to focus on the selling point of view of the existing health insurance products and detect their gaps and loopholes to make them more acceptable to the consumers in the market.” He added “besides other issues that the insurance industry faces such as ‘de-tariffing’, ‘cross subsidy’ and ‘group versus retail business’ the major challenge that specifically arises in health insurance is the consumer’s expectations from the health insurance products as the consumers would never want to compromise on their asset of health.” Informing the audience that 40% of the poverty in India is due to health disaster, Mr. Baveja, urged the students to understand the importance of constant innovation in the Industry of Insurance.

The workshop was followed by an interactive session between the industry experts from Milliman and students and faculty members of ASIAS wherein case studies on ‘role of IT’ and ‘contribution of automation’ in the insurance industry were presented.