Bupa eyes healthy growth amid upcountry expansion

Bupa eyes healthy growth amid upcountry expansion

Bupa Health Insurance (Thailand) is revving up its business expansion to cope with promising prospects in local health insurance, setting its sights on raising written direct premiums to 8 billion baht over the next eight years.

Andrew Wong, managing director of the country's leading health coverage specialist, said Bupa will invest 100 million baht over the next three years in TV commercials and another 150 million to upgrade its IT infrastructure.

"Starting from this year, we are set to beef up not only marketing activities but also branch expansion into the provincial market," said Mr Wong. "We aim to open at least four to six new branches this year."

Investment cost per branch is about 1 million baht.

Mr Wong said the new branches will be located mainly in places where people spend a lot of their daily life such as hypermarkets and specialty stores.

"Demand is expected to continue growing at a rate of 10-15% a year as Thais start realising that medical expenses are one of the key risks they have to face in light of epidemics and natural disasters," he said. "More importantly, people are more aware of health insurance coverage."

Bupa has enjoyed a strong performance in recent years, with growth outstripping the local health insurance market's average of 10-15% a year. The company last year reported unaudited premium growth of 40% to 1.8 billion baht.

Under the company's eight-year business plan, Bupa aims to sign up 1 million individual members from 250,000 now.

Mr Wong said to achieve that target, the company is committed to designing products with more affordable prices and interest-free down payments for premiums, targeting potential buyers earning 15,000 baht a month.

Established more than 30 years ago, Bupa, formerly known as Blue Cross Health Insurance, is the leading health insurance specialist in Thailand, with a greater than 80% share of the specialist health insurance market.

It provides coverage for employees and their families of more than 2,000 companies as well as individual policy holders.

Bupa is the only health insurance firm that guarantees lifetime renewal and employs full-time doctors and nurses.

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