Shekhar Parmar, 32, is convinced. At the end of next month, he will not renew his insurance policy issued by one of India’s largest stand-alone health insurers in market share. The Delhi-based chartered accountant seeks a “simple, personalised experience instead of generic covers.” More specifically, a policy that’s both location- and room-rent room-rent Room rent Most insurers place a cap on the type of hospital rooms covered under a health insurance policy. These caps are based on the daily rent of these rooms. -agnostic, something not so common among insurers.
Parmar’s job demands that he travel to different cities where he takes his retired parents along. Last year, on one such work trip, his father fell ill. But he couldn’t get his treatment fully reimbursed because his insurance had a cap on room rent. Parmar was unaware of this clause.
So, after evaluating some of the traditional general insurers, Parmar went in for a non-obvious choice—Digit General Insurance. Founded in 2016, the digital full-stack insurtech company launched its first health-insurance product in 2020. Parmar zeroed in on Digit because all its health policies are free from room-rent restrictions. Also, he said he understood what it laid out in its policy—a simple but not-so-common feature among health insurers.
“Most insurers have a very complex procedure of top-ups and add-ons for such facilities. Even then, I couldn’t find one policy that fit my budget and was tailor-made for my needs,” Parmar told The Ken.
Last valued at over $4 billion, Digit provides motor, liability, property, health, personal accident, and travel insurance. The general insurer has raised over $500 million from investors such as venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, global asset-management firm IIFL Asset Managers, and capital-investment firm TVS Capital Funds, among others.
Digit has so far grown on the back of its motor insurance. But expanding into health insurance is crucial to its ambitions of becoming a full-fledged general insurer.“The next level of growth will be unlocked only by going big on health insurance, both retail and corporate. The average premiums are usually higher in that segment,” said a former Digit employee.
For the first time in the nine months ended 31 December 2022, Digit registered a profit of nearly Rs 10 crore (~$1.2 million) compared to a loss of over Rs 196 crore (~$23.9 million) during the same period a year ago. It also recorded its highest gross written premiums in the same period at about Rs 5,300 crore (~$0.6 billion). This places it among the top half of India’s 21 registered general insurers, with a 5.3% market share.
Over the same period, motor insurance accounted for more than 60% of Digit’s premium, while the health insurance segment contributed only about 10%. For larger general insurers, such as ICICI Lombard, health insurance is nearly a quarter of their overall premium pie.
