Ramal addresses international audience in Cape Town

Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL) President and Asian Alliance Insurance PLC Director/CEO Ramal Jasinghe was invited to make a presentation at the Executive Briefing 2011 titled ‘Taking the Lead’ held in Cape Town, South Africa from 31 October to 4 November 2011.

Jasinghe addressed this international audience on the topic ‘Medical Insurance and Healthcare in Sri Lanka’.

This conference, organised by the Munich Reinsurance Company of Africa Limited. was patronised by many insurance professionals in the international arena. The conference received wide publicity for creating a forum to present and challenge ideas for the development of the global insurance industry and provided the audience the opportunity to understand and appreciate insurance practices and issues in the global arena.

Sri Lanka is an island with a total land area of approximately 25,300 square miles (65,610 square km); its’ gradual unfolding of a momentous historical process and socioeconomic developments throughout, were portrayed by Jasinghe in his presentation.

He illustrated that the healthcare facilities in Sri Lanka are largely provided by the public sector on a free of charge basis and constitute 95% of the hospitalisations in government hospitals. Private sector in healthcare is also growing serving the improving living standards of its residents.

Public sector healthcare authorities play the lead role in promotional, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services with an expansion in staff and supplies helping in the process of improvement in the quality of services provided.

Speaking about the medical insurance sector in Sri Lanka, Jasinghe brought to the notice of the august audience that the formal healthcare sector has a history dating back to 1926. Medical insurance industry in Sri Lanka is growing in both Life and Non Life sectors providing increased limits under indoor- and out-patient benefits with controls and exclusions to reduce almost 100% claims ratio.

The graphs, shared with the audience at the conference, depict the total GWP earned by the Non Life and Life insurance sectors in Sri Lanka.

The chart illustrates the composition of major critical illness claims in medical insurance class in Sri Lanka.

Main illnesses and hospitalisations on ailments due to changes in income levels and lifestyles are overviewed with present underwriting challenges.

Highest percentages of medical travellers from North America, Europe and Africa visit Asian countries, whereby only 7% seek overseas assistance.

Sri Lanka too has a high potential in assisting medical tourism allowing individuals to receive the highest quality care at affordable cost through skilled medical practitioners coupled with easy accessibility due to its hub like location in the Indian Ocean.

Jasinghe possesses over 25 years of experience in the field of marketing, which includes over15 years in the insurance sector. He Jasinghe holds an MBA from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and is a Chartered Marketer; Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK and the Academy of Marketing Sciences, USA.

Jasinghe has been an active member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, serving on its Executive Committee for many terms. Currently, he serves as the President of the Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL).

He has participated in top management programs at Stanford University Palo Alto, California, USA and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad, India.

The opportunity to present a paper to an international audience of experts at a technical forum such as this underscores the recognition of the professionalism and confidence that is nurtured at Asian Alliance Insurance PLC as well as insurance industry of Sri Lanka.