Star Health And Allied Insurance Company is planning to augment capital through private placement of equity.Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, S. Prakash, Executive Director, said the aim was to raise Rs.300 crore by placing fresh shares with a private equity investor. The company was also planning to offer health insurance schemes for pain therapy under which therapies such as anesthetising a particular nerve to stop pain would be covered.
Already, Star Health Insurance has launched a policy for persons with obesity. In India around 12,000 bariatric surgeries took place last year and the number was likely to increase he said. Earlier, bariatric surgery was termed as cosmetic surgery. As obese person runs the risk of getting other ailments such as diabetes and heart attacks, this should not be considered as cosmetic surgery, Dr. Prakash said. “It will be better to allow the person to undergo bariatric surgery so that he is healthy rather than facing the risk of paying claims for other ailments,” Dr. Prakash said.
Also, there was need for insurance companies to come out with innovative packages as chronic ailments such as diabetes and cancer were on the rise.
Star Health Insurance was focussing on health insurance and on retail customers as group insurance policies were not profitable, Dr. Prakash said. The premium secured under health insurance was registering a significant rise. Even the insurance regulator, which earlier categorised health insurance as one of the components under miscellaneous, has now brought it as a separate category, Dr. Prakash said. The health insurance portfolio was registering a significant growth and soon the total premium under health may cross the premium earned from motor vehicles. According to him, the total health insurance premium earned by the industry was around Rs.20,440 crore during 2014-15 and was expected to touch Rs.55,000 crore by 2020.
