24% growth in health cover premium drives non-life insurance sector | Finance News

The health insurance segment grew 24.4 per cent in the first half of 2023-24 (H1FY24) to Rs 54,713.52 crore from Rs 43,981.54 crore in H1FY23, driving the growth of the overall non-life insurance industry.

The surge in the price of group health premiums acted as a key contributing factor, data from the General Insurance Council showed.

In the first half, the health insurance segment registered 18.92 per cent growth year-on-year.

In the health segment, the premium of the group health segment rose nearly 27 per cent to Rs 29,537.57 crore in H1FY24 from Rs 23,316.04 crore a year ago. The retail health premium rose 18.39 per cent to Rs 18,784.82 crore from last year’s Rs 15,867.31 crore.

Among insurers, Star Health Insurance Company clocked 17.7 per cent growth in H1FY24 and ICICI Lombard General Insurance reported an 18.7 per cent surge during the same period. In the retail health insurance space, Care Health Insurance Company grew 43 per cent in H1FY24. In the group health insurance business, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company delivered 33.5 per cent YoY growth in H1FY24.

During the same period, premiums of the motor insurance segment grew 17.1 per cent to Rs 40,837.88 crore from Rs 34,879.98 crore. While premium from motor OD (own damage) insurance increased 20.7 per cent to Rs 16,787.12 crore due to healthy sales in new vehicles, premium from motor TP (third party) insurance rose 14.7 per cent to Rs 24,050.75 crore on account of flat motor TP prices .

The motor insurance segment of insurers saw a slight deceleration in growth from 18.8 per cent in the year-ago period.

In the first half of FY24, the monthly premium of non-life insurers increased 14.86 per cent to Rs 1.44 trillion from Rs 1.25 trillion in H1FY23 on the back of robust growth across major companies, according to data from the General Insurance Council.

Among segments, the health insurance segment dominated the market share with 38 per cent, followed by motor insurance (28.4 per cent) and fire insurance (6.5 per cent).

First Published: Oct 19 2023 | 7:36 PM IST