GST cut to zero lifts standalone health insurers’ market share to 13.6% in FY26 from 12.5%
The Centre’s decision to slash Goods and Services Tax (GST) on retail health insurance policies to zero from 18 percent in September 2025 may have boosted standalone health insurers’ market share to 13.6 percent in FY26, up from 12.5 percent a year earlier, according to monthly provisional data.
The GST rationalisation was aimed at reducing the upfront cost of buying health insurance, making policies more accessible to first-time buyers and encouraging upgrades among existing customers. For standalone health insurers, whose portfolios are sharply focused and often retail-heavy, this seems to have translated into a disproportionate gain.
On analysing the provisional data by the General Insurance Council and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, it is noted that standalone insurers’ market share, which hovered in the low teens through much of FY26, began to accelerate toward the latter half of the year.
From 11-14 percent levels between September and January, their share climbed to 18 percent in February and peaked at 20 per cent in March 2026 -- the highest in the period under review.
The gains for standalone health insurers may have come at the expense of general insurers, whose market share slipped to 82.9 percent in FY26 from 83.9 percent in FY25.
While the decline is modest, it likely underscores a gradual rebalancing within the broader general insurance landscape.
Within this segment, the divergence between public and private players remained largely unchanged in aggregate terms, but the undercurrents are telling.
