Irdai eyes sachetisation of insurance with Bima Vistaar plan

Insurance regulator is likely to price the all-in-one product-Bima Vistaar-that covers life, health, accident and property at a low premium of 1,500 per policy BENN KOCHUVEEDAN @Mumbai IN a nation that's the world's fifth largest economy but has one of the lowest insurance penetration levels as low as 4% is nothing to write home about.

-  BENN KOCHUVEEDAN

But this may change if the regulator - Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) has its way from a costbenefit or economic perspective. Irdai chairman Debasish Panda calls this Bima Trinity or the UPI-moment of insurance, which in effect means sachetisation of all insurance products life, health, property and personal accident covers--all at just 1,500 per policy.

The move to launch the first-of-its-kind all-in-one affordable insurance product comes in the backdrop of setting an ambitious goal of insurance for all by the time the nation turns 100 in 2047. The goal has been set given that the overall insurance penetration inched down to 4% in FY23 (figures for FY24 aren't yet officially out) from 4.2% in FY22, according to a Swiss Re-Sigma report. This is much below the global average of 6.8%. In the past two decades, the industry grew at over 16% despite prices heading south. The lowest penetration is in the general insurance sector at 1% but the industry is eyeing a 50% growth over this by 2030 to reach 1.5% of GDP. But when it comes to health insurance, it's much better at 37% or 514 million of the 1.4 billion people have medical insurance in 2021.

The Bima Trinity