Published On: 09-Jul-2020

The global Health Insurance Market is valued at USD 2730.76Billion in 2018 And Expected to Reach USD 3746.16Billion by 2025 with the CAGR of 4.62%over the forecast period. 

Global Health Insurance Scope: 

Health insurance is a type of insurance as it covers medical and surgical expenses of an insured person. Health insurance provides considerable flexibility in terms of disease or ailment coverage. For example, certain health insurance plans cover as many as 30 types of critical illnesses and more than 80 surgical procedures. There are two main types of health insurance, first is mediclaim plans and second is critical illness insurance plans. In health insurance industry, Mediclaim plans are the most basic type of health insurance plans. It covers the cost of treatment when insured person is admitted in the hospital, while critical illness insurance plans cover specific life threatening diseases. An ideal health insurance plan covers expenditures made towards medical tests costs, doctor consultation fees, ambulance charges and post hospitalization recovery costs to a certain extent.  

Global Health InsuranceDynamics: 

Increasing medical expense, growing incidences of cardiovascular diseases, rise in government initiatives for medical insurance schemes to improve healthcare and make it accessible for the unreachable sections of society are some major factors contributed to an increasing demand of the global health insurance market.  The Indian public sector insurance companies have increasingly implemented health insurance scheme to improve the access to healthcare for poor underprivileged families. For example; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that the U.S. healthcare system depends on heavily on private health insurance. In the National Health Interview Surveyed, it is found that 62.74 % of people under the age of 65 years in the U.S. have private health insurance coverage.  In health insurance industry, recent developments in public programs and private health insurance schemes have resulted in positive changes in the options available to customers and are important areas for future research.  

Recent News: 

Bajaj Allianz launched insurance policy covering COVID-19 

On 21 May, 2020; Bajaj Allianz General Insurance announced that the launch of its health insurance plan named ‘Arogya Sanjeevani Policy which covers COVID-19 related hospitalization. This product has been introduced according to standard guidelines issued by IRDAI on January 1, 2020 regarding Standard Individual Health Insurance Product. It includes costs associated with medical expenses, AYUSH treatment, mental illness, treatments like stem cell therapy and robotic surgeries and others. 

Top Health InsuranceTrends 2020: 

The health insurance industry is undergoing at evolving changes. In healthcare insurance industry, it is required to enhance operational efficiencies, serve to changing customer preferences and align better with the changing business environment.   

  • Insurers improves Transparency to strengthen customer trust: 

Improved transparency has become one of the huge health insurance trends. Rise in stringent regulations along with increasing burden to improve price and quality transparency are forcing the health care industry and insurers to become more transparent in their pricing. For healthcare insurance industry, transparency plays an important role to building customer trust. In healthcare sector, customers struggle to obtain detailed price information related to medical services or whether their plan covers a prescribed drug that can incur additional cost. For example; in the United States, stringent regulations such as exclusive order are putting more pressure on the healthcare insurance industry to become more transparent. Today, healthcare insurance industry is becoming more transparent due to the fact that customers seek for more detailed information while purchasing healthcare insurance plan.  

Insurers are progressively providing detailed insurance information about medical services covered under healthcare insurance plans, claim processing and payments. For example; United Healthcare provides personalized healthcare insurance videos with more details that how the claim is processed. Also this video covers overall plan coverage and information about treatment fees.  

  • Growing Number of Senior Citizens who buys Health Insurance: 

Aging population is living with serious health complications along reduced resistance to several diseases and pandemic such as COVID-19. During the old age, immunity tends to decline, making senior citizens more prone to severe disorders. It is extremely necessary that senior citizens must be covered under a proper health insurance plan including cost of treatment for coronavirus infection and other age related medical problems.  In recent years, it has been observed that number of senior citizens shifting their focus towards health insurance policies making growth of the global health insurance industry higher. Senior citizens often required hospitalisation which is the major part of the medical expenses that all are covered by the medical cover plan without wasting much money in their pocket. In addition to the above health insurance trends, IRDAI has allowed customers to pay health insurance premium in monthly installments for the convenience of the customers. Therefore, many people are now buying health insurance plans on monthly basis where the premium is paid every month. 

  • Predictive Analytics: 

Predictive Analytics is another modern health insurance trends. Health insurers are increasingly adopting predictive analytics for risk profiling and early intervention for enrollees with health issues. Predictive analytics helps insurers with in depth assessments of potentially high risk customers to reduce losses. Along with this, recent developments in technologies such as big data, analytics and connected devices, insurers have access to large sets of information, which can be useful in reminding people for their medical check ups, medications and other essential treatments. Insurers are now using predictive analytics to effectively recognize and monitor critical patients to intervene early and prevent individuals from being critically ill. Along with modern health insurance trends, a customized and high performance insurance claims analytics software solution can provide better accuracy, improve cost-efficiency and help healthcare providers’ process claims quicker. 

  • Payers bringpatients away from hospitals 

Payers enforced patients away from hospitals, which is the most popular health insurance trend. Insurers are trying to find out new ways to engage its patients toward outpatient services to escape higher medical costs from going to a hospital. According to the surveyed reports, insurers are starting to use primary care more proactively in order to ensure that would make them understandable in the needs of the patient. This is the latest health insurance trend toward joint efforts between private payers and delivery systems to control health care spending in major urban markets.  

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