A finger on the pulse – a research by Edelweiss General Insurance on the Millennial mindset in buying Health Insurance

Mumbai, March 15, 2022: Covid-19 has led to heightened awareness and need for buying a health insurance policy, especially among millennials. But there still seems to be resistance when it comes to actually buying one. There is a huge gap between realising the need and the actual action of buying one. Digital insurer, Edelweiss General Insurance (EGI) has released a study that throws light on this glaring insurance protection gap.

EGI’s multi-metro, qualitative study titled ‘A finger on the pulse’, brings to fore the financial, emotional, and psychological factors that encourage millennials to buy health insurance and also maps the barriers that stop them from buying. The report covers a millennial’s journey from fear to a sense of security.

The study also identifies three interesting and distinct customer mindsets within the millennial cohort and presents the health insurance purchase journey for each of them. They are:
1.       Mr. Evaluator – Wants only the best policy, and hence will spend substantial time and effort in thoroughly researching and evaluating available options before making a choice. The agent is a source of information for him, not the expert he relies on. Mr. Evaluator reaches out to trusted sources offline and online to ensure that his choice of policy and brand is correct.
2.       Mr. Outsourcer – Understands the value of health insurance and hence needs a policy that is adequate enough to cover him and his family. Since the category is confusing and flooded with too many options, he prefers to consult an agent to make his choice.
3.       Mr. Tick the Box – Ease and convenience matters most to him and hence online purchase is his go to route. Believes in online research and will look up insurer and aggregator websites to make a choice. The fear of losing money due to heavy hospitalisation/ medical bills, etc., pushes him to buy health insurance. He is premium sensitive and works within a budget.

Talking about the research, Shanai Ghosh, Executive Director & CEO, Edelweiss General Insurance, said, “Millennials will play a big role in improving India’s health insurance penetration. If this generation is curious about health insurance, then why are they not buying? This was the premise of our study, and we took a step back to first try and understand this gap. The insights drawn from the research has only helped reiterate our belief that it is important to know and understand the customer, and offer them simple, easy, and convenient solutions that encourages them to one, trust the category and two, invest in it.”