Less than 5% of Indian employers provide comprehensive insurance and benefits - including group medical cover, personal accident cover, term life and telehealth - to employees, according to a study by Plum, an employee health insurance platform.
In its first edition of a benchmarking report titled, “The State of Employee Benefits 2023”, Plum assessed more than 2,500 employer-sponsored health insurance plans across businesses of all sizes.
Findings
One finding is that 30% of organisations do not extend benefits to their employees’ families, and 75% do not extend benefits to their employees’ parents. Plum said, “This is alarming, because an employee is twice more likely to raise a claim for their family than for themselves.”
The median sum insured offered by companies is INR300,000 ($3,630). This is 40% lower than the recommended sum insured of INR500,000.
Maternity coverage
More than half (56%) of companies offer maternity benefits to their employees.
The median maternity cover offered is INR52,000 for normal delivery. This is comparable with the average cost of childbirth in Tier 1 cities and metros in India at private hospitals is INR45,000 to INR50,000.
The median maternity cover offered is INR55,000 for Caesarean deliveries. In contrast, the cost of C-sections in private hospitals, depending on the level of complications, ranges from INR70,000 to INR200,000.
Health insurance
While 65% of India’s out-of-pocket expenditure consists of OPD spending, 98% of Indian companies don’t offer OPD coverage with insurance.
58% do not offer telehealth consultations on top of their group medical cover. 90% do not offer health checkups to their team.
Term life insurance
Term life insurance is often ignored by India’s employers. 95% of companies do not offer term life insurance to their employees.
77% of India’s companies fail to offer group personal accident and disability coverage in addition to health insurance.
Plum, which offers several recommendations to employers in the report, said, “We believe that this report is a first step towards enabling businesses to make more informed decisions about their employees’ health.”
Plum, launched in 2019, aims to provide India’s missing middle with insurance and health benefits that are simple, accessible and inclusive. The company is backed by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.