Citibank to offer specialised health insurance services

Citibank India, a leading wealth management services provider, along with Appolo Munich will offer healthcare solutions to its affluent and high networth clients.
The healthcare solutions will target 16 million households. They combine financial protection and health & lifestyle management support for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancers and tumors.
According to McKinsey, India's health expenditure stood at around Rs 3 lakh crore, of which out-of-pocket spends contributed to a high 61 per cent of total health care expenditure.
"The higher out-of-pocket expenditure of around 61 per cent incurred by consumers to address medical and health needs, coupled with around 38 per cent of emerging affluent without health insurance, demonstrates the potential to serve this segment," Kartik Kaushik, Deputy Country Business Manager, Global Consumer Bank, Citibank India said.

"The needs of the urban mass affluent and affluent segments are significantly underserved. Only 20 per cent of the urban population has some form of health insurance. At present, there is no comprehensive solution available in the market that provides integrated financial protection and health and lifestyle management solutions," Antony Jacob, CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance, said.
India's health insurance premium market grew 16.57 per cent to about Rs 15,700 crore in FY 2012/13, according to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, indicating a low level of penetration relative to health expenditure.