Non-life insurance companies continued their double-digit growth in February, with premiums growing 20 per cent year-on-year to ₹19,876 crore led by health and motor insurance. So far in FY23, premiums for the sector have grown 16.9 per cent, compared with 11 per cent for the corresponding period of the previous year.
General Insurers’ premiums were up 15.6 per cent year-on-year compared with 7.7 per cent growth in February 2022. Premium growth for standalone private health insurers grew to ₹2,320 crore from ₹1,829 crore a year ago, but was lower than ₹2,560 crore, a month ago.
The month-on-month growth and for the 11-month period ended February was slower than last year due to normalised growth in the government and retail health schemes, which had seen significant growth last year, CARE Ratings said in a note.
Private vs PSU insurers
Private companies reported higher growth of 21.5 per cent compared with PSU non-life insurers’ growth of 17.5 per cent. For the year-to-date, private players grew 2.2 times their PSU peers, taking their market share to 61 per cent from 59 per cent a year ago.
The share of health insurance as a segment improved to 35.2 per cent for the 11-month period, up from 29.4 per cent two years ago. On a yearly basis, the segment grew 23.9 per cent, lower than the 25.6 per cent growth seen last year owing to a smaller base.
“Group Health segment has witnessed growth primarily due to the rationalisation of discounts in premiums. Meanwhile, retail health segment growth looks to be normalising post the pandemic. Government schemes have increased their share due to the Ayushman Bharat scheme, and other medical options were made available due to pandemic-induced awareness,” CARE said.
Motor insurance
For the 11-month period, motor insurance premiums grew 4.3 times compared with last year to ₹72,860 crore. Motor OD (own damage) grew 16.7 per cent much higher than 4.2 per cent last year, and Motor TP (third party) grew 14.8 per cent compared with 3.3 per cent. This was largely due to a low base during the pandemic period and increase in vehicles sales for the last six months.
CARE expects the “non-life insurance market to grow 13-15 per cent over the medium term. The health insurance segment is seen growing 15-18 per cent to reach the ₹1-lakh crore mark and motor insurance growth is seen at 11.5-13.5 per cent to touch ₹85,000 crore in FY24.