‘55% Lucknow Millennials buy health insurance plans only for tax benefits’

The Indian Millennials (born in 80s and 90s) work hard and party harder. A hardworking, aspirational generation, Millennials are a highspending group who splurge almost 69% of their income every month.

However, Lucknow Millennials save a little more as compared to their counterparts in other cities. These are some of the findings of a multicity survey on ‘Understanding lifestyle and attitude towards health of Millennials’, conducted by a private insurance company.

The survey that covered Lucknow, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad targeted individuals in the age bracket of 25 to 35 years.

Interestingly, more Millennials in Lucknow spend on themselves as compared to those from other cities.

While 50% of their income is spent on family and household items, followed by EMIs, they also spend considerably on leisure and entertainment. However, the overall medical expenditure for Lucknow Millennials was just 6% of their monthly income.

It emerged that the uninsured Millennials saved less and spent more on medical expenses as compared to their insured counterparts.

The ICICI Lombard GIC Survey suggests that in Lucknow 94% of Millennials believed that they were fit and healthy. Also that insured Millennials were more confident about their health then the uninsured. They were seen to be proactive in health matters.

Thus, where 68% of the overall respondents agreed that a busy life had impacted their health, only 37% of Lucknow Millennials felt so.

Commenting on the survey, Amit Bhandari, head, health and agri insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance said, “It is heartening to know that Millennials understand the importance of good health. However, the level of health insurance awareness among them is significantly low with limited understanding of benefits.”

According to the survey, most Lucknow Millennials purchased a policy at the age of 30 years whereas experts suggest that it should be bought earlier. 90% of Millennials in the city were covered under a floater plan and surprisingly 55% still purchased health insurance only to avail of tax benefits.

The survey included 150 respondents from Lucknow and 1400 pan India.