Reiterating the company’s preference for acquiring a stake rather than launching a new entity, Mohanty said, “We will be buying a large stake in an existing health insurance company, and we are working hard on that. Hopefully, soon we will have an announcement to make on that front.”
In February, a parliamentary panel recommended establishing a composite insurance licensing regime to reduce costs and ease the compliance burden for insurers. Currently, life insurance companies are limited to offering only long-term health benefits. An amendment to the Insurance Act would be necessary to allow them to provide hospitalisation and indemnity coverage.
India’s insurance market remains significantly under-penetrated. Life insurance penetration stands at less than 5 percent, while health insurance coverage reaches approximately 60 percent, or around 650 million people. Of these, 350 million are covered under government-sponsored programmes, and around 200 million have group insurance coverage.
The government and IRDAI are eager to expand health insurance coverage, aiming for universal coverage by 2047. LIC’s entry into the health insurance market is expected to boost these efforts, given the corporation’s strong brand presence and its extensive sales force of over 1.3 million.
For the financial year ending in March 2024, LIC reported a net profit of Rs 40,676 crore, up from Rs 36,397 crore in the previous fiscal year. The total premium income for the year was Rs 4,75,070 crore, compared to Rs 4,74,005 crore in March 2023.
