Organisation:

ACCESS Health International, MetLife

Resource Link:

Published in 2021, Link

My Key Takeaways

“Health is wealth”, a common saying during festive periods in Asia.

Sadly, patients in developing APAC countries currently pay on average 50% of their healthcare expenses out of pocket (OOP).

As healthcare does not necessarily flow to those who need it most, but to those who can afford it most…

I would argue that unfortunately today, Wealth equals Health instead. 😔

This is why I’m sharing some takeaways from a report by ACCESS Health International and MetLife about innovative health financial solutions in Asia.

Here are four common archetypes of innovative health financing solutions for your HealthTech company’s unbanked/underbanked consumers in Asia (Fig 15)

• Insurtech
• Crowdfunding
• Digital Savings
• Digital Lending

A map of points along a person’s healthcare where he or she is mostly likely to pay out of pocket and vulnerable to high cost (Figure 3)

Hope this helps your healthcare company to identify where you can make a real difference.

Save time fleshing out Asian customer personas for your healthcare company

Here are four customer personas and suggestions of scalable health financing solutions for them (Fig 5-8, Fig 20-24):

1) Malaysia – 67-year old retiree Ibrahim battles diabetes and rising OOP costs from insulin and tests.

2) Bangladesh – 23-year old cleaning lady Rashida is pregnant but faces high indirect costs from travel to check ups and time off work.

3) Vietnam – 20-year old factory worker Binh prefers longer term contraception but is deterred by the upfront cost of US$120 when she can only afford to pay US$1-3 per month.

4) China – 25-year old delivery man Xiaoming has to deal with lung cancer, while struggling with rising OOP costs, and uncertain medicine outcomes.

Hope this saves your product development and marketing teams’ time to create customer personas.

Looking for mobile wallet partners for your HealthTech in Asia? Here’s a map of leading players across 6 featured Asian markets (figure 13)

Partner the right platform to amplify your HealthTech’s reach in Asia:

Fintechs like bKash in Bangladesh, MoMo in Vietnam, Tencent in China are offering and promoting telemedicine and insurance directly on their platforms.

Ride hailing platforms and telehealth collaborations are also common (Pg 29):

• Grab + Ping An Good Doctor
• GoJek + HaloDoc
• Pathao (motorcycle hailing co) + Praava Health, Digital Healthcare Solutions (DHS) + Maya Apa

Some examples of successful and innovative health financing business models in Asia:

1.  India’s PolicyBazaar features family health insurance plans covering children, parents, and grandparents for hospital fees and gives discounts on products and services, all for one premium.

Similar bundling service model to media streaming and telco as it increases the “stickiness” of your service for existing customers.

2. Bangladesh’s Digital Healthcare Solutions (DHS) provides different microinsurance tiers for cash claim limits (paid through mobile wallets), discounts, online consultation time and number of health tips (Fig 16)

3. China’s Shuidi offers online, low cost, crowdfunded and short-term health financing for cash flow shortages. Members could receive up to 300k RMB for healthcare expenses for just over 1 RMB a month!

For its 80M subscribers (70% in lower-tier cities & rural areas), these plans are a stepping stone to more comprehensive insurance plans.

4. India’s AffordPlan (Fig 18)

For patients facing liquidity issues for procedures like cataract, IVF etc, AffordPlan offers customised health savings plans, including in-person visits and digital reminders.

The patient is able to make savings (on a daily, weekly, monthly basis) towards treatment costs via online transfer, home pickups or deposit at AffordPlan’s network of pharmacies and labs.

5. India’s Arogya Finance (Figure 19)

Rather than collateral, the digital lending social enterprise uses rapid screening and psychometric tests to determine creditworthiness and risk-taking profile of patients diagnosed with critical illness and unable to pay for treatment.

Arogya disburses loan within 3-48 hours, and the borrower pays back in manageable instalments.

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As we usher in this hopefully healthy and prosperous lunar new year, I’m looking forward to more collaboration opportunities with ecosystems which believe that health financing in Singapore and Asia must be patient-centered, and that the best solutions are bundled, integrated, and comprehensive.

Follow my LinkedIn post here.

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About Zhilin SIM

Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.

I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.

My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting corporate and startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.

Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.

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