In the pandemic, small and medium-sized businesses have become more in demand for voluntary medical insurance programs with franchises and options that allow you to optimize the budget, representatives of insurance companies told Izvestia.
“With large clients, everything is proceeding normally, tenders are held, contracts are renewed. In small and medium-sized businesses, we see a change in the structure of demand, they optimize costs and move to cut products and reduced coverage limits, ”said Dmitry Popov, Deputy Director General for Voluntary Health Insurance at Ingosstrakh.
Companies from the tourism, hotel and retail business refused from voluntary medical insurance programs, which did not manage to quickly or fully switch to the online format, said Alisa Bezlyudova, who oversees medical marketing at AlfaStrakhovanie.
In Russia, small and medium-sized businesses employ about 15.3 million people, according to data from the Federal Tax Service. The national project on SMEs outlined a goal by 2024 to increase the number of people employed in these areas to 25 million people. According to various estimates, from 10 to 20% of small businesses closed during the pandemic, and the process continues – the peak of liquidation of companies will be in the fall.
Insurers understand the situation in small business, and for those who cut costs, but at the same time want to provide employees, they develop “box” products of the “economy class” for VHI – with a franchise, initial patient treatment through telemedicine services and so on, commented the vice Dmitry Kuznetsov, President of the All-Russian Union of Insurers.
Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:
Policy is temporarily unavailable: small business refuses VHI