Approximately 90% micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) do not offer any financial support for meeting the medical costs to the families of the employees, as per a study. The study titled - 'MSME group health insurance penetration in India' was jointly conducted by FICCI and KPMG in India. The study covered 219 MSMEs across 15 manufacturing and services sectors to analyse the healthcare coverage for the workforce.
As per the Annual Report (2016-2017), MSMEs contribute 30% to Indian GDP, and it is important that they are well protected. "A key aspect of this growth story would be providing quality healthcare access and social security coverage to the largely informal or unorganised workforce employed in this sector. This could result in significant productivity improvement in this sector", said Shashwat Sharma, Partner and Head, Insurance, KPMG India.
There is lot of scope for group health insurance for MSMEs. This is highlighted in the words of G. Srinivasan, Chairman, FICCI Health Insurance Committee. He said, "The MSME sector of the country is highly under penetrated in terms of healthcare cover. Hence, this segment offers a great opportunity for the health insurance industry to expand its outreach and increase accessibility to affordable healthcare".
Setting up the healthcare infrastructure, incentivizing group health cover adoption and service innovations are a three-way approach to improving MSME healthcare coverage. While the government can focus on healthcare infrastructure, the insurance companies play a pivotal role in designing affordable group health policies.
Since the improvement of productivity of the MSMEs hinges on their welfare in terms of health, group health insurance goes a long way to cover the employees' medical costs.
*Source: Times Of India
Also Read:
Disease-specific Insurance Plans Becomes Popular In Hyderabad
Solar Panel Warranty Insurance Launched By ICICI Lombard