The Driver, The Saheb, and Health Insurance

In the back sits the Saheb.? Well off.? Can afford a large health insurance policy for his family.? Can even pay for his healthcare from his pocket or via credit cards (and earn miles!). ?

In the front sits his Driver.? With an ill wife who needs complex and expensive surgery.? He earns well enough but can't afford to pay for the surgery.? He can't afford sufficient Health Insurance either. He finds it too intimidating and wonders if it can be trusted. And no one is offering him coverage. His wife will likely not be able to do the surgery. This is our India today.

"I want an India where the Driver and the Saheb have the same insurance and can have access to the same quality health care", said Dr. Devi Shetty to me, repeating his dream of dissociating affluence from access to quality health care in our country.

The 25 year insurance veteran in me said "Huh?? How is that even possible? Loss ratios, fraud, anti-selection, acquisition cost, blah-blah-blah. Can't be done. Sorry."

And then down the rabbit hole we went.

Breaking down each piece of the cost.? Looking at the choice architectures that exist.? Questioning each piece of established health insurance wisdom.? Repeatedly asking what are the gives and gets that truly matter. What is absolutely required? What can be sacrificed??

Long debates and spirited fights ensued as we tried to solve this impossible riddle.? Along the way, we found colleagues and partners willing to unlearn, relearn, and keep an open mind.? A shareholder willing to walk the talk. A Board that always put the Customer first. And a Regulator who was a supporter of our mission.

All in pursuit of a single goal - how can the driver and the saheb have access to the same quality care?

Soon, Narayana Health Insurance will launch ADITI.

People will say we are crazy.?

And we are. ?

For the driver. And for his wife. Who can finally get her surgery.

Devi Shetty Viren Shetty Anesh Shetty Anamika Roy Rashtrawar Tajinder Mukherjee Nachiket Mor Dr Emmanuel Rupert Sandhya Sriram Venkatesh R Dr Vijay Singh Pavan Kumar Paramatmuni Sheela Anand Dr. Shruti Prabhu Sonia Vora Gaurav Agarwal Anil Taneja JV Prasad FIA, FIAI Keerthi Kulkarni Ayush Srivastava Rama Gopal Krishna Addagiri Kannan Ramagopalan Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Janish Jain Nishant Singh Kumar KV Jagadeesh Ramasamy Vivek Rajagopal Dr. Ashish Bajaj Karthik Ramakrishnan Gunjan Shahabadi Tulika Bansal Preeta Mohanty Dr P M Uthappa Prashant Belsare