Demand for ready-made solutions in health insurance is growing

Market participants have observed an increase in demand for “boxed” voluntary health insurance (VHI) among corporate clients recently. According to experts, this is primarily due to the localization of companies and competition for employees. However, they expect that “individual designers” of VHI may soon supplant boxed products.

Insurers and brokers surveyed by Kommersant note an increase in demand for “boxed voluntary health insurance” among corporate clients.

Thus, according to Natalya Krasnenkova, medical commercial director of the BestDoctor group, requests for commercial proposals in September increased by 30% compared to August. VSK confirms the trend, talking about a threefold increase in demand in the segment in the first half of the year. Reso-Garantiya also sees an increase in demand for “boxed voluntary health insurance.”

At the same time, the director of the personal insurance department at AST, Ekaterina Lvova, speaks of an increase in demand of only 5–7%; the share of “boxed products” in the company does not exceed 10% of the entire VHI portfolio.

“Boxed VHI” is a standardized product with clear parameters, scope of services, list of clinics, and validity period, explains Mikhail Kunin, head of the personal insurance department at Nobilis. According to independent expert Andrei Barhota, the number of “boxed voluntary health insurance” policies sold in August could amount to several tens of thousands of policies.

First of all, the demand for “boxed voluntary health insurance” is growing among small companies. The demand for such solutions is especially high among small and medium-sized businesses located in remote regions, Ms. Krasnenkova clarifies.

“Such products are also relevant for those categories of employees for whom standard VHI is not traditionally issued, for example, couriers and warehouse workers,” adds Ms. Lvova. “We see that the demand for VHI for line personnel in the manufacturing sector with the number of employees from 300 is growing. Human”.

According to Mr. Barhota, the main reason for the increase in demand for “boxed” products in VHI is the rise in prices of both medical services and consumables. Competition in the labor market has intensified, and in order to maintain their positions, companies are considering “boxed” solutions as an opportunity not to abandon VHI altogether, he explains.

In addition, “boxed” packages began to be purchased for a separate category of insured, in particular for management, notes Mr. Kunin. This happened due to the fact that localization for many companies “did not pass without a trace” – many previously foreign organizations were faced with the fact that their staff either underwent severe reductions, or the terms of employment contracts and the provision of social packages changed, the expert explains.

Meanwhile, insurers believe that soon “boxed” products may give way to “individual VHI designers”. Thus, Alexander Lapunov, director of the underwriting and VHI methodology department at AlfaStrakhovanie, believes that it is sometimes easier to start communication with a “boxed” product, but every corporate client, even a small one, wants to customize the service for themselves.

Alexey Vigdorchik, Deputy Director for Personal Insurance in the field of product development at Zetta Life Insurance, notes that the company sees great potential in the insurance of small and medium-sized businesses, and therefore is already bringing to the market designer products for VHI – when the solution allows you to choose a combination of risks and clinics of various levels.

Yulia Poslavskaya