Cigna Thailand has repositioned its brand with a view to strengthening its business direction and tapping the local health-insurance market.
US-based Cigna is known globally for its health-insurance business, while Cigna Thailand has experienced good overall growth throughout the past seven years.
The Thai unit has now positioned the Living Well brand to respond to customers’ health and well-being needs.
It sees greater opportunity for accident and health insurance in the local mass market, where people might not be able to afford private medical treatment without some form of coverage, said Gus Giraldo, chief executive officer and country manager at Cigna Thailand.
The company has, therefore, shifted its focus to health-insurance business, he said.
Cigna customer research found that 77.8 per cent of the Thai population has an average monthly income of less than Bt10,000, and that this segment has limited access to affordable private healthcare.
The company will provide insurance under a new Enhance Health Products range of cover, for which mass-market customers can afford the premiums, he added.
Cigna Thailand has, meanwhile, introduced its first health insurance by combining personal accident and health coverage under a PA+OPD product to the mass market.
The minimum premium is set at Bt4,000 per year and the maximum at Bt10,000, depending on the sum insured. The Enhance Health Products line-up will start to be introduced to the market in the middle of next year.
Critical-illness cover will be offered to mass-market customers for premiums starting at Bt5,000-Bt7,000 per year, and for middle-income people at Bt20,000-Bt25,000 per year.
“Our policies will fill the gap in these premium ranges because from our survey, around 65 per cent of people are interested in such health insurance but cannot afford the premiums,” said Giraldo.
The company hopes that the business generated from Enhance Health Products will add 5-10 percentage points to its annual growth of 15 per cent, he added.
This year, Cigna Thailand expects total premium to come in at Bt1.8 billion.
The overall health-insurance market in the Kingdom next year is expected to expand more than 10 per cent, from 8-10 per cent this year, due largely to the growing “ageing” society and the high cost of healthcare.
Despite Cigna’s new brand positioning, the company will continue to work with distribution partners through existing channels, especially via direct marketing and retail, said the CEO.
Date: November 26, 2014