CHENNAI: Star Health and Allied Insurance Company is confident of achieving Rs 20,000 crore business this year, especially after the tailwind provided to the insurance industry via the GST cut from 18 per cent to zero.
Star Health MD-CEO Anand Roy said categorising it as food grain or essential goods has helped the standalone health insurer, which has seen significant growth since October after the goods and services tax cut. “We have already crossed a gross written premium income of Rs 17,800 crore this January.”
Dwelling on this permanent “structural change,” he said the insurance industry has seen 50 per cent growth in new customer acquisitions.
The health insurer is targeting Rs 30,000 revenue mark by 2028.
On the high distribution costs, his response was the business model is agency dependent and the costs vary from company to company. “Our expense management norms are within the guidelines specified by the IRDAI,” Roy said, adding Star Health had 8.5 lakh agents on its network.
The insurance company has seen its renewal retention figures go up by 2 per cent. The average sum assured of new policies from Rs 9 lakh has risen to Rs 11 lakh, after the change in GST, he said in response to a query on price hikes.
“The input tax credit is being absorbed by us. We have spoken to all our distribution partners and 65 per cent of our products have seen a price increase of 10-12 per cent,” Roy said, pointing to the high medical inflation seen by the tightly-regulated industry.
Earlier, announcing the launch of 32 Arogya Seva Kendra’s (ASK) across nine states under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme here on Monday, he said this initiative, in partnership with Piramal and Pfizer, is aimed at strengthening access to community-level primary healthcare.
The first ASK was inaugurated in Chennai while the Tamil Nadu rollout includes Nagercoil, Thoothukudi, Tirupur and Karur. Unlike health camps, this initiative offers a permanent structure where doctor consultations, screening, diagnostics, medicines and adult pneumococcal vaccination support would be provided free of cost. A sum of Rs 15 crore had been invested in phase I, he said, adding the Chennai launch marks the beginning of a structured, long-term CSR initiative focused on preventive, accessible and continuous primary healthcare delivery.