Chennai: Standalone health insurer Galaxy Health Insurance Company Ltd has drawn up a strategy to introduce one new product every month in the current year, aimed at meeting the various requirements of its customers. According to Galaxy Health Insurance MD and CEO G Srinivasan, the city-headquartered firm is also considering covering employees in the SME and MSME segments.
Galaxy Health Insurance is backed by renowned industrialist Venu Srinivasan, the Chairman Emeritus of TVS Motor Company and Sundaram-Clayton, and V Jagannathan, dubbed a doyen of the health insurance industry, who founded Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd.
The objective is to introduce insurance policies with a focus on wellness and also make sure that when there is a claim by the customer, they receive the best level of service and the full claim amount, he said.
Galaxy Health Insurance is very well-capitalised, with the idea of becoming a larger company in the coming years. The initial strategy is to focus on southern states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, he said.
Responding to a query, Srinivasan said the company is eyeing Rs 200 crore in premium income during this financial year, besides scaling up its presence to 100 offices from the current 60 locations.
“Our strategy is to come out with one new product every month in the current year. This will address the needs of various segments of customers,” he said in response to a question on product launches.
Noting that 90 per cent of the business would largely come from retail insurance, he said the remaining 10 per cent would be contributed by corporates.
“Largely, we would like to focus on retail health insurance. I personally feel that retail health insurance is very important, so that’s the major area of focus, and 10 per cent of the business will be from corporates and SMEs,” he said.
Asked why a customer should select Galaxy Health Insurance when the market already has several insurance companies, he replied, “The promoters have come with a clear vision that we must be a company which makes a difference to customers.”
“So, we will come out with innovative products that make sense to customers and that provide comprehensive health insurance solutions. And second, we will also focus on building wellness as part of our solutions,” he said.
“The idea is that health insurance should not be ‘disease insurance’-that is, something that only comes into play after someone has fallen sick. We would really like our products to help our customers live and stay healthy. So, wellness will be an important part of our solutions. We will also focus on outpatient treatment, which today is not a big part of health insurance,” he explained.
Srinivasan was also of the view that on the service side, people feel service levels in the insurance sector “are not great” and that they are not getting their full claims back.
“So, we would like to ensure that we provide hassle-free service in terms of quick cashless settlements. More importantly, we will make sure that the customer receives the full claim amount so that they do not feel unhappy that they have only received part of it. Service is an important part of our strategy to bring change to the market,” he said.
Asked whether the company had undertaken a study on the penetration of health insurance, he said that while there is enough data available across the country, generally, the southern states have better penetration compared to the northern or eastern states.
“But even in the southern states, what we have seen is that there are not many people who are insured-and more importantly, not adequately insured,” he said.
