Bangalore: Plum, an employee health insurance platform has partnered with Visa, the global leader in digital payments, to provide a comprehensive and affordable health insurance plan to its MSME cardholders. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and on International MSME Day, both organisations have come together to reinstate their support for the health and wellbeing of the 460 million people employed by this sector.

Under this association, small business owners who are also Visa’s business card holders can receive new-age health insurance covers, doctor consultations and a host of other wellness benefits with monthly plans starting as low as INR 129 (per life, per month). The partnership also enables organisations with just two employees to get access to best-in-class insurance covers.

Plum will offer two types of plans to Visa’s small business card holders:

‘Income advantage plan for SMEs’ which offers a lump sum benefit on hospitalisation, ICU hospitalisation payout, per day cash allowance

‘Plum Lite plan for small teams’ offers health insurance up to Rs 5 lakhs, discounted medicines, health check-ups, unlimited doctor consultations, weekly wellness sessions, dental and vision check-ups etc.

Visa business card holders will be able to avail of a 40% discount on the income advantage plan and a 40% discount on the first month of Plum Lite membership.

Abhishek Poddar, Co-Founder and CEO of Plum, said “We started Plum with a mission of covering 10 million lives by 2024. Our endeavour is to ensure the segments that earlier lacked access to quality health insurance are able to afford and utilise quality healthcare through us. Through our partnership with Visa, we will enhance the adoption of health insurance by small business owners, thereby promoting a wellbeing-first culture. It is a proud fact for us at Plum that about 80% of our customer base are first-time buyers of insurance.”

Manish Daswani, Head – Commercial Solutions, India and South Asia, Visa, said “Small businesses often seek insurance solutions that fit with their unique needs of being affordable yet superior propositions. We are pleased to partner with Plum to make such innovative health benefits accessible to our MSME cardholders through 2 distinct plans. Continuing on our commitment to the recovery of small businesses, we are confident these propositions will help bolster the wellbeing needs of our business cardholders.”

SMEs in India account for nearly 30% of the country’s GDP and employ about 460 million people. Despite that, insurance penetration among MSMEs is extremely low. Reiterating its commitments towards enhancing the country’s health insurance coverage and bringing more MSMEs and gig workers under the insurance radar, Plum has earlier launched Plum Lite targeting early-stage startups, SMEs and gig workers/ freelance consultants.