According to reports from The Hindu BusinessLine, Nilesh Kambli, Chief Financial Officer of Star Health and Allied Insurance, expects significant benefits from Budget 2026-27 measures for the health insurance sector. The Finance Minister announced ₹10,000 crore outlay for the Biopharma SHAKTI scheme, which is expected to reduce pharmacy costs across the country. Additionally, the budget exempted basic customs duty on 17 cancer-related drugs, which will directly benefit insurance companies by reducing claim costs and improving affordability for customers.
As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, Star Health's Expenses of Management (EoM) ratio increased 211 basis points year-on-year to 33.95% in Q3 FY26, though it remains well within the regulatory limit of 35%. The company faced additional burden of ₹65-70 crore due to GST input tax credit loss from September 22 onwards, affecting operational expenditure including IT, rent, and electricity costs. Despite these challenges, the company maintained strong growth momentum with 60% growth in fresh retail health business and 27% growth in overall retail health GWP for Q3 FY26.
According to the report, Star Health's market share in retail health segment declined to 31.3% in nine months of FY26 from 32.2% in the previous year. The company is strategically reducing business in loss-making locations and high-fraud areas, including parts of Delhi and Gujarat, to maintain profitability. Kambli indicated that the company sees growth opportunities in underpenetrated regions including North-East, semi-urban and rural areas in Southern and Eastern territories, where approximately 50% of business currently comes from.
As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, the GST exemption on individual health premium helped increase the average ticket size to ₹22,000 from ₹20,000 in the previous year, representing an 11-12% increase. The company's retail health segment showed 27% growth in GWP for Q3 FY26, with fresh business growing 23% in volume compared to the last fiscal year. Kambli emphasized that the government's measures will improve affordability and availability of health insurance for customers.
