Cover Your Employees Under Group Health Insurance Tarun Mathur

Health is the top priority today than at any time before. And not just employees, but employers should also watch out for their workers. So, if you want a healthy workforce, cover your employees under group health insurance.

It is important to cover yourself under an individual health insurance policy, but it is equally important for employers to cover their employees under group health insurance, especially during tough times like the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is not about insurance, but this is more about how much you care about your employees. When any leader talks to the employees, the first thing he/she says is that we are family,” said Tarun Mathur, Chief Business Officer (General Insurance) and Co-Founder, Policybazaar.

“It's crucial to look after the well-being of your employees. An organization small or large should take care of its employees when something happens to them. Health insurance offers coverage for medical expenses to the policyholder in case of a health emergency. How will an employee earning Rs 20,000 per month pay for a hospital bill of Rs 2 lacs?” added Mathur.

A healthy workforce leads to better productivity. A lot of workforce in organizations is quite young and not serious about buying individual health insurance. So, every employer should get their employees covered for any kind of health emergency.

“Covid-19 has taught us that a company’s true assets are its employees. In many organizations, buildings, offices, I.T. systems are lying vacant but still, their employees have been able to productively contribute to the company and its growth by working from home. So, it's imperative for companies to protect their assets and their dependents. There’s no bigger protection than health insurance for these employees and their family members. It not just brings peace, but keeps them productive and gainfully engaged for the company and for themselves as well,” said Dr. Bhabatosh Mishra, Director Underwriting, Products and Claims, Max Bupa Health Insurance.

“On a lighter note, we only die once, but live a life where we can face multiple health events and health insurance comes as an extremely important and powerful tool to protect us against the vagaries of health and life. Increasingly, newer treatments, modern treatments are available and just having access to good hospitals is not good enough. Affordability is a bigger concern in many parts of our country and health insurance is not comparable to anything as far as affordability protection is concerned,” added Mishra.

A lot of people, either liquidate their assets or borrow money just for availing good quality and basic quality treatments. Therefore, it is very important that we wake up to this risk mitigation measure as employers for our employees.

Group Health Insurance is a very flexible plan and offers a wide range of choices and a variety of sum insured. “Unfortunately, many employers so far have treated this as a thing to do, kind of a tick box. Many take it very seriously, but I would say a large segment don’t and offer very low sum assured to the employees and their dependents. For a vast majority, the sum assured for group insurance tends to be Rs 2-3 lacs for the family which is inadequate for these times. A sum assured of at least Rs 10 lacs is recommended. We have a dual problem. One is the low penetration of health insurance, but perhaps the bigger problem is under insurance,” added Mishra.

There are various advantages of buying a group health insurance policy. Employees need not go through medical screenings/tests. A group health insurance policy is less priced as compared with a retail health policy. It is a great retention tool for employers. It reduces the company’s liability and risk towards employees. The product is modular in nature and multiple customization options are available. Employees feel valued if an employer offers health insurance coverage. Not just employees but family protection is also included in a group health insurance policy. Adding more people to a group health insurance policy increases the plan’s advantages. Group health insurance plans cover everything from emergency to wellness.

One of the strengths of a group health insurance policy is it's customizable as per employee segments. “The requirements for technology industry or a company in the tech domain has specific requirements because of the workforce as compared to somebody who's in manufacturing. Group insurance policies precisely help them customize it for the needs of their employee group. Not just the insurance part, but there is flexibility in designing wellness programmes around data as well to keep the employees and their families healthy. Unlike retail health insurance which is much more rigid and pre-fabricated, group insurance offers a bouquet of benefits that the corporates desire to make a variety of plans to fit the need of the employee group, fit the budget of the corporate and the wellness agenda that they want to pursue their employees,” added Mishra.

The plans cover relevant medical expenses 30 days prior to hospitalization. The initial waiting period of 30 days is waived off in a group health insurance policy, unlike a retail health policy. The specific waiting period of any disease is also waived off. The plans cover medical expenses 60 days post hospitalization and relevant medical expenses for pre-existing diseases. The plans cover all members-employee; employee+spouse+2 kids; employee+spouse+2 kids+parents/inlaws.

“We offer a platform where somebody can compare products and we help them decide which one’s the best for them. We segment customers based on small enterprises, large enterprises, and very large corporates. We are able to find out what kind of products will best suit them and give choices from multiple companies,” said Mathur.

“We aren’t just giving you a comparison for you to buy on your own. We are also trying to make sure that we give you the service that's required from an employer to an employee at the time of claim,” added Mathur. Clarity of terms and conditions and competitive pricing are the top priorities for Policybazaar.

In retail health insurance, each individual is underwritten, or risk assessed individually, whereas, in group insurance, the entire employee group and their dependents are priced in one go. Thus that brings in a lot of pricing advantage because an insurance company doesn't have to source independently, individually multiple policies. Secondly, because that entire group gets covered without adverse selection or moral hazard which is that they are not selecting insurance on their own, but as a group entirely, thus, typically in all group insurance, waiting period is not applicable, whether it is 30 days waiting period or disease-specific waiting period. These are all covered from day one that awards tremendous advantage to group insurance plans at a very, very affordable nominal premium as compared to retail plans.