Maintaining consistency across regional markets is a key challenge for the international private medical insurance (IPMI) market, according to Christopher Hughes, founder and managing director at Health Well Solutions.
“For me, one of the key challenges is consistency across your value proposition in all the various geographical areas that you are operating in,” Hughes (pictured centre) said.
He was part of a panel discussion that looked at IPMI product development for the next generation during the second day of Health & Protection’s third annual IPMI Summit at Sopwell House in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
The panel included Paulo Bonomi, (pictured left) head of account management at Pacific Prime and Amber Musson-Thorp, (pictured right) group commercial director MEA at Lifecare International.
“Sometimes its difficult to find one consistent solution but in fact we don’t need one consistent solution – you can then start to look in different areas,” Hughes told delegates.
“But that adds complexity and logistics and additional cots and the customer journey becomes confusion.
“You’ve got an SME for example with members in various countries and they’ve all got slightly different value propositions and partners.
“You can’t carry on having inflation costs and expect customers to be able to carry on paying those. We need to find some solutions.”
But according to Qatar-based Musson-Thorp there is an additional regional element to consider on cost containment.
“I’d just like to bring it back home to everyone on the difference from the Middle East,” she said.
She added that in the Qatar market, about 15% of the population is insured, and “all the clinics, all the hospitals and all the insurers are fighting for that business.
“We’ve actually now got clinics sending buses to the labour camps to pick up people to take them to their clinic – and they waive the co-payment.
“Its absolutely crazy.”
There are also differences in other parts of Asia including China, according to Bonomi.
“There is a localised IPMI in China, where they’ve got local PMI products with international characteristics,” Bonomi said.
“Localised products can build a much better network.”
And on China, Hughes noted: “Different regions react differently. For example because there’s no state benefits at all really in China, everybody’s buying health insurance that they can afford.”