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International Journal of Management

A Study on Customer Perception

Attitude and Satisfaction towards
Health Insurance in Madurai District
I. Rajasekar
Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies
Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
OPEN ACCESS
Dr. P. Uma Rani
Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration
Volume: 6
Thiagarajar College, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Issue: 1
Abstract
The Indian health insurance industry was primarily dormant before the opening up of
Month: July the market for private players. It is only after the privatization of the health insurance
market and introduction of the insurance regulator that one has seen rapid growth in this
Year: 2018 segment. The growth is also fueled by the complexities and challenges within the health
care market. The health needs of the population are majorly funded through private means
and different options are being explored for nancing of health care in the Indian context.
ISSN: 2321-4643
The social sector was deprived of the benets of health insurance and it is only recently
that the health insurance schemes for the population below poverty line had been launched
by the government. Since, health insurance as a mechanism is a combination of nancing
Received: and service delivery of healthcare; it has its own complexities and requires a thorough
23.07.2018 investigation of the relationships and intricacies involved among different stakeholders.
Keywords: Health Insurance, Customer Perception, Satisfaction.
Accepted:
27.07.2018 Introduction
Insurance is the backbone of a country's risk management system. The
Published: risk is an inherent part of our lives. The insurance providers offer a variety
29.07.2018 of products to businesses and individuals to provide protection from risk
and to ensure nancial security. Insurance is an important component in
Citation: the nancial intermediation chain of a country and is a source of long-
I. Rajasekar, and P.
term capital for infrastructure and long-term projects. Through their
Uma Rani. “A Study on
participation in nancial markets, they also provide support in stabilizing
Customer Perception
Attitude and Satisfaction the markets by evening out any uctuations. Human beings always sought
towards Health Insurance in security. This quest for security was an important motivating force in
Madurai District.” Shanlax the earliest formation of families, clans, tribes and other groups. Indeed,
International Journal of groups have been the primary source of both emotional and physical
Management, vol. 6, no. 1, security, since the beginning of mankind. The insurance providers helped
2018, pp. 21–25. their less fortunate members in the time of crisis. Humans today continue
their quest to achieve security and reduce uncertainties and for this, they
DOI: rely on groups for nancial stability. The group may be our employers,
https://doi.org/10.5281/ the government or an insurance company, but the concept is the same.
zenodo.1323052 In some ways, however, we today are more vulnerable than ancestors.

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The physical and economic security formerly It is further endorsed by the fact that India spends
provided by the tribes or extended family is only 6-7 % of GDP on Health care. A comparison
diminishing with industrialization. Our income- of health care spending patterns between India and
dependent, wealth acquiring life style renders us developed countries approve the same, as only 5
and our family more vulnerable to environmental % Indians avail the same. In Canada and the UK,
and societal changes over which we have no control. Health care is free of cost. While in India, complete
More formalized means are required for mitigating coverage is still not accessible, despite bulky
the adverse consequences of unemployment, loss of premium payment. The present paper critically
health, death, old age, lawsuits and destruction of evaluates the marketing strategies of leading players
our property. Although individuals cannot predict or in the Indian Health Insurance Sector. Further, some
completely prevent such occurrences, they can provide useful marketing Implications (with the special focus
for their nancial losses. The function of insurance on STP and marketing mix) have been suggested at
is to safeguard against such misfortune through the the end. Nisakorn Phichitchaisopa and Thanakorn
contribution of many who pay for the losses of the Naenna (2013) results found that the factors with
unfortunate few. This is the essence of insurance - the a signicant effect are performance expectancy,
sharing of losses and, in the process, the substitution effort expectancy and facilitating conditions. They
of certain, small “loss” called the premium for an were also found to have a signicant impact on
uncertain, large loss (Black and Skipper, 2003). behavioral intention to use the acceptance healthcare
In other words, insurance is a method which technology. Also, in Thai provincial areas, positive
provides security and protection against nancial signicance was found with two factors: social
loss upto some limit. It means of shifting of risks to inuence on behavioral intention and facilitating
the insurer in consideration of a nominal cost called conditions to direct using behavior. Based on research
premium. Risks may be transferred in two ways: ndings, for healthcare information technology to
rstly, a person may seek to transfer the activity or be widely adopted and used by healthcare staffs in
avoid such event which creates the risk; for example, healthcare supply chain management, the healthcare
a civil engineering contractor may give sub-contract organizational management should improve
to another. Alternatively, the contractual agreement healthcare staffs' behavioral intention and facilitate
may be made to shift responsibility for any losses conditions. Sinha, A. (2014) studies life insurance
attributable to the occurrence of the specied industry in India which had its birth in the early part
uncertain event to the other person who is a party of the nineteenth century. For better management
to the contract. Exclusion and indemnity clause in of the insurance business, several Acts have been
a contract of sale, building, transport means and passed from time to time. Two noteworthy events
similar other contracts are a few examples. In fact, in the history of life insurance are (i) the formation
the most important form of risk transfer is insurance. of the Life Insurance Corporation of India in 1956,
which served as a monopoly till the year 2000
Review of Literature followed by (ii) the opening up of the insurance
Valentin, E. C., Degnan, and R. D., &Ntaganira, sector to the private players in 1999, who were given
J., (2012) justify the need for a special focus the permission to operate either single-handedly or
required for Indian Health Insurance. The major as a joint venture with any other private player(s)
stimulators in availing health insurance are the tax and/or foreign partner. This drastic regulatory
rebate, security (both nancial and health), risk change brought an end to the monopoly status of
coverage, health leverage, out of pocket expenditure, LIC, and also encouraged the private players to enter
neutralizing rising healthcare cost. Anand Thakur into the insurance space. To keep pace with the fast-
and Sushil Kumar (2013) Examined Understanding changing industry environment, one of the functions
the low penetration in the Indian Health Insurance that are gaining strategic importance is the coming
Industry (presently 32%) and leading MNCs of the up of newer channels of distribution, which would
world were venturing aggressively into this sector. spread the business to newer markets and serve the

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customers cost-effectively, steadily, and speedily. Methodology

This exploratory research (which was carried out The study is an empirical one based on data
in the period from May-July 2012) discusses the gathered from the respondents have been chosen for
various distribution channels (that emerged in the the study. A sample of 562 respondents has been
deregulated period and changed the overall industry chosen for the study. For this study, the researcher
trend) operating over a period from 2005-06 to 2009- used a well-structured questionnaire to collect
10. The researcher considered seven dominating the data from the respondents. The questionnaire
private players in the life insurance industry to related to variables of customer perception attitude
understand the recent patterns in distribution. and satisfaction towards health insurance. The
The analysis clearly shows a move-away from researcher used correlation analysis to study the
the traditional channels by the private sector. relationship among dimensions of customer attitude,
deciencies, switchover, customer satisfaction,
Objectives of the Study perception, expectation and purchase intention. IBM
To examine the relationship among SPSS 21 version was used for statistical purpose.
dimensions of customer perception attitude
and satisfaction towards health insurance. Results and Discussion
Correlation Analysis Between Customer Attitude,
Deciencies, Switchover, Customer Satisfaction,
Perception, Expectation and Purchase Intention

Table 1 Relationship Between Customer Attitude, Deciencies, Switchover,

Customer Satisfaction, Perception, Expectation and Purchase Intention
Correlation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Deciency Pearson
1 .913** .253** .185** .871** .819** .744**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
Attitude Pearson
.913** 1 .182** .166** .837** .959** .744**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 0.000 .000
Switch Over Pearson
.253** .182** 1 .011 .193** .169** .177**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .772 .000 .000 .000
Customer Pearson
.185** .166** .011 1 .195** .147** .211**
Satisfaction Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .772 .000 .000 .000
Expectations Pearson
.871** .837** .193** .195** 1 .810** .926**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
Perception Pearson
.819** .959** .169** .147** .810** 1 .721**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
**. Correlation is signicant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The above table concludes that correlation and customer attitudes. The correlation coefcient
coefcient between deciencies of the health between deciencies of the health insurance services
insurance services and customer attitudes is 0.913 and brand switch over is 0.253, which indicates 25%
which indicates 91% positive correlation is existing positive relation exists between deciencies of the
between deciencies of the health insurance services health insurance services and brand switch over.

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The correlation coefcient between deciencies is 0.177 which shows 18% positive relation exists
of the health insurance services and customer between customer attitudes and purchase intention.
satisfaction is 0.185 which indicates 19% positive The correlation coefcient between customer
relation is existing between deciencies of the satisfaction and customer expectation is 19.5% which
health insurance services and customer satisfaction. shows that 20% positive relation exists between
The correlation coefcient between deciencies brand switch over and customer expectation. The
of the health insurance services and customers correlation coefcient between customer satisfaction
expectation is 0.871 which indicates 87% positive and customer expectations is 0.147 which means 15%
relation is existing between deciencies of the health positive relation exists between customer satisfaction
insurance services and customer expectations. The and customer perception. The correlation coefcient
correlation coefcient between deciencies of the between customer satisfaction and purchase intention
health insurance services and customer perception is is 0.211 which shows a 21% positive relation exists
0.819 which shows 82% positive relation is existing between customer satisfaction and purchase intention.
between deciencies of the health insurance services The correlation coefcient between customer
and customer perception. The correlation coefcient expectations and customer perception is 0.810 which
between deciencies of the health insurance services means 81% positive relation exists between customer
and purchase intention is 0.744 which means 74% expectations and perception. The correlation
positive relation is existing between deciencies of coefcient between customer expectations and
the health insurance services and purchase intention. purchase intention 0.926 which means 93% positive
The correlation coefcient between customer relation exists between customer expectations and
attitudes and brand switch over is 0.182 which purchase intention. The correlation coefcient
means 18% positive relation is existing between between customer perception and purchase intention
customer attitudes and brand switch over. The 0.721 which means 72% positive relation exists
correlation coefcient between customer attitudes between customer perception and purchase intention.
and customer satisfaction is 0.166 which means
17% positive relation is existing between customer Conclusion
attitudes and customer satisfaction. The correlation A large mass of people in India are not nanced
coefcient between customer attitudes and customer savvy and would like to play safe and avoid the
expectation is 0.837 which shows 84% positive vagaries of the market movements so that they can
relation is existing between customer attitudes and plan their future income ows and not be worried
customer expectations. The correlation coefcient about the fatal accidents. The new private insurers
between customer attitudes and customer perception coming in with the liberalization of the sector
is 0.959 which indicates 96% positive relation is are adding more channels of distribution in the
existing between customer attitudes and customer Indian market parallel to the existing ones. The
perception. The correlation coefcient between mantra is innovation and diversication. Today
customer attitudes and purchase intention is 0.744 in the liberalized insurance markets, every new
which means 74% positive relation is existing health insurer sells through one or more alternative
between customer attitudes and purchase intention. distribution channels that ensure accessibility of the
The correlation coefcient between the brand insurance products to the rural people. The private
switch over and customer expectation is 0.193 which companies no longer rely solely or excessively on
means 19% positive relation is existing between the agent network, that has given the new way to a
customer attitudes and customer expectation. The range of new distribution channels telemarketing,
correlation coefcient between customer attitudes direct marketing, corporate agents and development
and customer perception is 0.169 which means 17% ofcers directly on the internet. Utilizing the
positive relation is existing between customer attitudes extensive network for selling insurance will over a
and customer perception. The correlation coefcient period bring about an increase in insurance density
between customer attitudes and purchase intention in private health insurance companies. Besides

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improving insurance penetration in rural areas, a Websites

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