CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC
Meaning of the term ‘Consumer perception’:
Business Dictionary defines consumer perception as a “marketing concept that encompasses
a customer's impression, awareness or consciousness about a company or its offerings.
Customer perception is an individual’s appreciation of a product or service provided or marketed to him.
This term can be seen as a process that starts when the consumer or potential consumer receives
information about a product and ends when he builds an opinion or judgment of it.
Growing demand for modern medical care, brought on by a rapidly, expanding population,
rising literacy levels, and technological advancement lead to high expectation from the health
services. This has shifted demand in favour of health care. Good Health confers on a person or
groups’ freedom from illness - and the ability to realize one's potential. Health is therefore best
understood as the indispensable basis for defining a person's sense of well being. Health
insurance is an insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals.
Health insurance remains vastly under-developed in India. An analysis of financing of
hospitalization shows that large proportion of people borrows money or sells assets to pay for
hospitalization. Majority of Indians are more vulnerable to major ailments. Marketing of health
insurance policies become paramount important to help people to meet out the untoward
expenses arising out of unexpected ailments.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE?
No one plans to get sick or hurt, but most people need medical care at some point. Health insurance
covers these costs and offers many other important benefits. Health insurance protects you from
unexpected, high medical costs. You pay less for covered in-network health care, even before you meet
your deductible.
1.1-
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:
To understand people’s perspective towards health policy
To have an insight of the company.
To gain experience of being a researcher
To interact with people of various age groups
1.2-
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
1. According to Chatterjee, Giri, Bandyopadhyay (2018)
The main challenge right now is to make healthcare universal to all irrespective of the background and
income level of the individuals as health is a basic commodity that every citizen of India has a right to
obtain. Thus, companies and the government should pave a path such that this objective could be
attained as soon as possible.
Healthcare insurance is largely an unsaturated market in India. The major target population is the
middle income strata who offer the most promising future for this particular industry. It is gaining
importance at a steadier pace as people are realising the importance of insurance in case of a deadly
disease. With the increase in population and industrialization, various diseases are popping up at an
alarming speed. Epidemics are spreading on a remarkable pace as the diagnosis is happening late. In
country like India, most of the costs incurred during hospitalisations are out of pocket expenditure and
hence, health insurance policies could become a breakthrough for the common people as the patients
would not lack quality medical services just because the patient’s family could not come up with the
treatment cost at the right time. The main challenge right now is to make healthcare universal to all
irrespective of the background and income level of the individuals as health is a basic commodity that
every citizen of India has a right to obtain. Thus, companies and the government should pave a path
such that this objective could be attained as soon as possible. The future of the health insurance
industry looks very promising if the regulatory framework is changed slightly. It could alter the way in
which business is done today between the policy holder and the policy taker. Statistics suggest that the
overall insurance industry is expected to reach USD 280 billion by 2020. As a result, the planning of the
penetration in the market keeping a strong strategical focus on the various demographical factors can
change the way of the healthcare insurance system today being perceived into something which is
exponentially better.
Competition was handled by lowering the costs sustained as well as raising the mark of the consumer
satisfaction. In spite of all these functions happening consequently, there is no optimal development in
this particular field. There are many challenges that have already been discussed in the paper which are
in need of constant analysis. It must not be forgotten that although private insurance companies have
been granted permission to start their operations, but, a country’s economic, social and institutional
factors play a very big role in marking the success of these companies. There are various views on this
particular topic. One view talks about the fact that privatisation will not be beneficial in the long run as
there are limited resources which would now have to be shared within a much larger pool. This would
hinder the performance of the entire industry as a whole. It has also been said that the social and
financial aspect of the population have to be ignored while supporting privatisation. Another view states
that privatisation will be beneficial in the long run. It will be able to detect the financial gaps within the
entire system and address them accordingly. It can offer the consumers the value for their money which
would go a long way in building confidence between the two parties. Problems that were difficult to
address such as low quality care and bribery could be solved by the means of privatisation. Both the
views have their theoretical as well as practical aspects.
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2. According to Binny ,Gupta (2017)
Health insurance sector has immense opportunities as this sector maintained double digit growth last
fiscal year. Health Insurance has been witnessing a rapid expansion and has significant growth potential
for future as well. New Products, new services, new distribution channels leads to the innovation in this
sector. Companies are working on all these perspectives.
Literature Review
In today‟s world customers are well educative and well informed about the market. Technology has
given wisdom to the client for instance customer can compare the plans of different insurance
companies within 5 minutes .Health insurance is a customer centric industry. If customer is not satisfied
with the policy and services of the company, he might switch over to other companies. With more
Choices, complexity and increasing uncertainty the customers is confused and his peace of mind. For
this insurance companies have to more equipped for fulfillment the need of customers and companies
have to provide customer specific products to fulfill their demand.
This is the biggest challenge for the insurance companies. Consumers are the king of service industry.
Companies don‟t have proper grievance management system. This kind of system should be more
transparent to make customers satisfy with the companies services. Health insurance companies also
face other challenges such as increase in the list of empanelled hospitals, need new plans for senior
citizen, limited government support, quality services etc.
The Indian Health Insurance is a growing sector. For companies to enhance their insurance business
and customer base must opt to new business models with innovations. Innovative products and services
should be used by companies to increase their revenues also.
Health Insurers have to create consumer trust. Company can offer individual plans, coverage and
premiums are based on individual personal profile and health history. Biggest opportunities lie in
Innovative products, Innovative services, Innovative Distribution channels and trained workforce.
Quality service and cost control and to meet the customer need are the keys for bright future. On the
other hand, Health Insurance sector is struggling with high claim ratios, insufficient data on health
insurance, claim settlement and disease pattern. Mainly the relationships of employees with customers
do their mindset. To overcome this problem, companies should have some common information Bank.
Information may help them in assessing the prices, quality and services etc. Government should also
help to promote the health insurance business. Health insurance sector has long way to go.
3.According to Shukla,Singh (2018)
This paper is an attempt to find out whether the health insurance has penetrated in India. We tested
several hypotheses and it has been observed that health insurance has been ignored by the people for
several reasons. Family income is not a reason for such obstruction. There is a lack of awareness of
usefulness of such schemes.
Literature Review
This paper is an attempt to find out whether the health insurance has penetrated in India. We tested
several hypotheses and it has been observed that health insurance has been ignored by the people for
several reasons. Family income is not a reason for such obstruction. There is a lack of awareness of
usefulness of such schemes. While life insurance is considered by the respondents because there is an
end value which they receive after a number of years, health insurance cannot be perceived in the same
manner. The respondents felt that if they did not fall sick they were unnecessarily paying a high amount
as premium which was wasted. The presence of government hospitals providing free treatment was
another attraction in place of payment of health insurance premiums. Moreover, health insurance is
now becoming cashless. The understanding of the respondents was that a person who fell sick had to
pay first and then get reimbursement. This was not liked by the respondents. The awareness level of
health plans was extremely poor. The penetration level is very low in semi urban pockets of urban India.
It is ‘a mirage’ and not ‘a reality’ at the level of income and education discussed in this paper. The
awareness can be increased by bringing about new policies with low premium and with less fuss of
difficult forms to be filled up. It is important to bring about health care for the lowest income level not
only in rural area but semi urban and urban pockets in India as the present plans are not fulfilling the
needs of the different strata of society.
Since, investment in India in the health sector is increasing both in the government sector as well as in
the private sector, it is important that health insurance should be popularized for the population of the
country so that every person is covered with it. India has a sizable population in semi urban and urban
pockets of India who are not covered by any health insurance scheme primarily due to their inherent
nature of work which is in unorganised sector. It is important to educate the people in these areas to
cover themselves with healthcare plans. This paper finds out whether the plans fulfil the needs of the
society. The medical care is becoming costlier day by day and it is becoming out of reach of common
person in India. The below poverty line (BPL) population in India constitutes more than one third of total
population. The public health expenditure is either static or decreasing in India. Approx. eighty percent
of health expenditure is out-of –pocket private expenditure. So, Health Insurance remains only the
viable alternative to cover the medical care costs of vast number of people in India.
4. According to .Priya R.Srinivasan Assistant Professor in
Department of Commerce with Computer Applications,
Rajalakshmi (2016)
The health insurance industry has changed rapidly in the changing economic environment throughout
the world. The overall Insurance Industry contributes about seven percent GDP of our economy. The
increasedrate of market competition due to liberalization and privatization forced health insurers to be
competitively serving in a better way to the customers. In that point view to huge untapped market, the
concept of health insurance was introduced by the IRDA. Health insurance is a new and an emerging
model of channel of distribution adopted by insurance players to increase the market share and
insurance penetration. The present empirical based study was conducted with an objective to
understand the growth of health insurance in Indian health Insurance Industry and to measure the
customer awareness, satisfaction and perception towards buying health insurance products from
insurers. The various concepts related to health insurance have been discussed in this paper. Health
insurance is accelerating the growth of Insurance business, decrease cost, Low awareness of health
insurance among customers. This paper concludes that there is a tremendous scope and growth
opportunity available for health insurance in future in the Indian Insurance market.
The rural population are more vulnerable to risks such as illness, injury, accident and death because of
their social and economic situation. There is need to provide financial protection to poor families for the
same. Health insurance could be a way of removing the financial barriers and improving accessibility to
quality medical care by the poor and also an effective social security mechanism. Awareness regarding
health insurance is poor; therefore awareness creation is needed. Education, socio-economical status
and occupation were favourable determinants for opting health insurance.
1.3.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT Following are the main objectives of the study are
a) To know the customers awareness regarding the health insurance
. b) To know the customers awareness regarding the various health insurance companies in the
insurance sector.
c) To know the customers preference towards the private or public insurance sector.
d) To know the different promotion strategy used by companies to aware their customers.
e) To evaluate the factors underlying consumer perception towards investment in health insurance
policies.
f) To develop and standardize a measure to evaluate investment pattern in health insurance services.
1.3-
Research Methodology
Research is a common language refers to a search of knowledge. Research is scientific & systematic
search for pertinent information on a specific topic, in fact research is an art of scientific investigation.
Research Methodology is a scientific way to solve research problem. It may be understood as a science
of studying how research is doing scientifically. In it we study various steps that are generally adopted by
researchers in studying their research problem. It is necessary for researchers to know not only know
research method techniques but also technology. The research problem consists of series of closely
related activities. At times, the first step determines the native of the last step to be undertaken. Why a
research has been defined, what data has been collected and what a particular methods have been
adopted and a host of similar other questions are usually answered when we talk of research
methodology concerning a research problem or study.
Research Design
A research design is defined as the specific methods and procedures for acquiring the information
needed. It is a plant or organizing framework for doing the study and collecting the data. Designing a
research plan requires decisions all the data sources, research approaches, research instruments,
sampling plan and contact methods. Research design is mainly of following types:
1. Exploratory research
2. 2. Descriptive research
3. 3. Casual research
Exploratory Research
The major purposes of exploratory studies are the identification of problems, the more precise
formulation of problems and the formulations of new alternative courses of action. The design
of exploratory studies is characterized by a great amount of flexibility and ad-hoc veracity.
Data Collection
Data is collected from various customers through personal interaction. Specific questionnaires are
prepared for collecting data. Data is collected with mere interaction and formal discussion with different
respondents and face to face contact with the persons from whom the information is to be obtained
(known as informants). I ask them questions pertaining to the survey and collect the desired
information. I contact the workers of Aditya BirlaHealth Insurance Company Ltd. to obtain some of the
information. The information obtained is first hand and original in character.
Period of Study: This study has been carried out for a maximum period of 6 weeks.
Area of study: The study is exclusively done in the area of marketing. It is a process requiring care,
sophistication, experience, business judgment, and imagination for which there can be no mechanical
substitutes.
Sampling Design: The random sampling is done because any probability sampling procedure would
require detailed information about the universe, which is not easily available further, as it is being an
exploratory research.
Sample Procedure: In this study “random sampling procedure is used. Random sampling is preferred
because of some limitation and the complexity. Area sampling is used in combination with random
sampling so as to collect the data from different regions of the city.
Sampling Size: The sampling size of the study is 100.
Method of the Sampling:
Simple Random Sampling
A simple random sample gives each member of the population an equal chance of being chosen. It is
not a haphazard sample as some people think. One way of achieving a simple random sample is to
number each element in the sampling frame (e.g. give everyone on the Electoral register a number) and
then use random numbers to select the required sample. Random numbers can be obtained using your
calculator, a spreadsheet, and printed tables of random numbers, or by the more traditional methods of
drawing slips of paper from a hat, tossing coins or rolling dice.
Cluster and Area Sampling
Cluster sampling is a sampling technique used when "natural" groupings are evident in a statistical
population. It is often used in marketing research. In this technique, the total population is divided into
these groups (or clusters) and a sample of the groups is selected.
Then the required information is collected from the elements within each selected group. This may be
done for every element in these groups or a subsample of elements may be selected within each of
these groups.
Limitations
Limitations
Although every effort has been in to collect the relevant information through the sources available, still
some relevant information could not be gathered.
Busy Schedule of Concerned Executives:
The concerned executives were having very busy schedule because of which they were reluctant to give
appointment.
Time:
The time duration could not provide ample opportunity to study every detail of the company
. Unawareness:
Customers were unaware of many terms related to same while asking to them.
Confidential Information:
As the company on account of confidential report has not disclosed some figures. Moreover, in some
cases separate accounts of division are not separately maintained thereby, leading to restrictions in
study.
