Coimbatore: The city stands on top of the list when it comes to the number of people having health insurance cover, thanks to the growing awareness among citizens for quality healthcare and the new-age finance. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16, 75% of the surveyed households in the city had at least one member of the family with a health scheme or insurance, the highest among other cities.

This figure is a reflection of the increased per capita income and financial planning, experts say. "We are giving awareness about health insurance in all places on same level. But, we felt that people in Coimbatore have good per capita income and better financial planning than other places," said chief operating officer of Star Health Insurance, Dr S Prakash. "Health insurance is called as collateral security. It is a way of safeguarding your wealth," he said.

The percentage of households having health insurances is lesser in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai than Coimbatore. Out of the 775 households surveyed by the International Institute of Population Sciences, only 15% of them had a person with health insurance. Places like Delhi and Mysuru had around 34% households that had a person insured for his/her health.

In Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore stands on top of the list with 75% households. Trichy stands a close second with 63% households having a person with a health insurance. Chennai had about 57% and Madurai about 50% households had a person with health insurance. "The number of corporates in the city has grown tremendously, thanks to the information technology sector. This way, you can see at least 50% of families coming to us with at least one member working in a private hospital," said L Malaravan, operations manager at G Kuppusamy Naidu Hospital.

At the same time, there is an understanding among middle and upper middle class to secure themselves and their family members with a health insurance scheme. "The growing awareness among people has paved way for health insurance. Private health insurances have been a common phenomenon at our hospital," said Malaravan.

"At Max Bupa, we have seen an upward trend in the purchase of health insurance in Coimbatore with the number of new policies issued in 2016-17 increasing by more than 50% compared to the past year. In terms of reported claims in the state of Tamil Nadu too, Coimbatore emerged as the second highest city with a 28% increase in overall claims during 2015-16," said MD & CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance, Ashish Mehrotra.

South India itself has always been ahead of the curve, even in terms of digital uptake of health insurance, Mehrotra said. "A recent study conducted by Max Bupa and IMRB with over 2000 respondents revealed that South India favours online purchase of health insurance (at 76%) more than any other region," he added.