Health insurance premium continues strong run in July, motor remains a laggard

At an industry level, the health insurance premium collection for the month of July grew by slightly over 43 percent coming in at Rs 7,110 crore compared to Rs 4,970 crore in the same month last year.

The standalone health insurance sector also saw its premium grow by over 45 percent in July when compared on a year-on-year basis. Looking at the performance at the individual company level, New India Assurance saw premium in its health insurance vertical doubling in July, as it collected premium worth Rs 1,465 crore whereas, for ICICI Lombard General Insurance, the health insurance premium collection remained muted and saw a growth of just 0.27 percent.

Health insurance premium collection was also muted for other large insurers like HDFC Ergo and SBI General Insurance that saw a growth of 9 percent and 2.3 percent respectively. Bajaj Allianz was the clear outperformer with the premium in July growing almost 5X at Rs 785 crore as compared to Rs 163 crore in July 2020.

July crop insurance premium for the industry also saw a muted growth of 5 percent when compared on a year-on-year basis.

Motor insurance was another large business segment that failed to show any meaningful growth in July. For the industry, motor insurance premium in July grew by almost 9 percent with ICICI Lombard seeing of growth of just 0.3 percent.

On one hand, New India Assurance saw strong growth in the health insurance vertical and on the other hand, the motor segment of the company saw a fall of almost 5 percent in premium collection in July on a year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, SBI General Insurance and HDFC Ergo saw strong premium collection at 53 percent and 20 percent in the motor segment.

Insurance industry experts remain positive on the health insurance space and expect the momentum in premium collection to continue but at the same time, they have sounded a cautious note on the motor insurance side and only expect a pick once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and there is demand recovery for auto sales.