CRITICAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE HEALTH INSURANCE SECTOR IN INDIA DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Health insurance is one of the main non-life insurance sectors, which contributes nearly 29% of general insurance premium income. Almost every industry in the world has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and its associated lockdowns, including the Indian insurance industry, which makes a significant contribution to a nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and economic development. OBJECTIVES: This review of literature aims to critically evaluate the performance of Indian health insurance companies along with examining various opportunities and challenges during the time of COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: The present study is a combination of both exploratory and descriptive literature review types and was entirely based on published secondary data. Literature searches were performed using Google Scholar, Research Gate, ProQuest, and Scopus databases for articles published between 2020 and 2022. The study also used various annual reports of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the internet, newspaper articles, and company websites for the study. RESULTS: Even though there was a lack of literature on this topic, 19 articles were identified for review based on the keyword search that most closely matched the topic of the study. The study assesses the effectiveness of various Indian health insurance companies using four key metrics gross health premium income, incurred claim ratio, number of policies issued or covered and amount of claim paid. Results of the study have shown that as more people get health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a notable growth seen in the overall performance of the health insurance business. CONCLUSION: Health insurers faced both opportunities and challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the imperative need to develop more customer-centric new products and services that enable them to provide a significant health insurance benefit to the large untapped population of the Indian market.