IRDA should allow life insurers in healthcare'

Life insurers in India should be allowed to play a bigger role to create an ecosystem in the healthcare sector so that they can be the 'disruptor' rather than the 'disrupted', HDFC Life Chairman Deepak S Parekh said in the company's annual report.

The year started on an uncertain note, the pandemic led to a significant loss of human life and now presents a challenge to public health systems, the way of working and the social norms, Parekh said in his address to shareholders in the company's annual report for 2020-21. "In the wake of such an unprecedented crisis, we had to move quickly and manage a near overnight transition to a virtual working model. "We ranked consistently among the top-two private sector companies in the private sector in terms of new business premium; closing the year at Rs 20,107 crore with a market share of 21.5 per cent," he said.

HDFC Life Insurance company achieved this amid an economic slowdown exacerbated by the pandemic, liquidity crisis in the financial sector, an uncertain business environment with changing customer preferences, said its chairman. Company strategy of having a diverse distribution channel helped it tide across a year that saw disruption in its face-to-face networks. "While we continue to invest to enhance our technological capabilities, I feel that the time is right for the regulator Irdai (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) to allow life insurers in India to evolve further and be the disruptor rather than the disrupted," Parekh said.

He said companies in Asia and more-developed markets have created subsidiaries and orchestrated ecosystems to make insurance a more holistic offering for the customer. Citing an example, he said that in Asia, one of the leading insurers has created a healthcare ecosystem that includes services like online medical consultation.