Mr. Puneet Nanda, Executive Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, discusses the advantage of buying health insurance plans from life insurance companies and staying invested in them for the long term.

Why are more and more life insurers looking to get into the health insurance space?

India has a growing number of young working individuals. Their lifestyle is one that can be described as having four “Rises”. Rising aspirations, rising incomes, rising consumption and rising stress. Their fast-paced professional lives coupled with neglect towards healthy dietary habits is leading to an increase in lifestyle-related ailments. Clearly, all of us need to equip ourselves to not only avoid such lifestyle-related ailments but also to prepare ourselves financially in case we were to be affected. This is where health insurance has a huge role to play.

Within health insurance, we believe there is a differentiated proposition that life insurance companies can offer. This is the category of products in which the customer gets a lumpsum benefit and not the reimbursement of medical expenses incurred. This segment is gaining popularity due to its greater relevance for customers.