Fight for younger clients weighs on IP insurers

Singapore

EVEN as the six Integrated Shield Plan (IP) insurers struggle to keep a lid on rising medical claims, they are besieged with an equally worrying problem - the brutal rivalry to attract new and younger clients from an increasingly shrinking pool of healthy and available consumers.

Industry observers told The Business Times that the six IP providers of these yearly renewable private health insurance plans are hemmed in by a rapidly ageing population - a trend that is only set to grow and that will have considerable impact on the IP industry's sustainability.