Health insurance premium set to increase due to COVID-19 impact: Sources

New Delhi: In the coming days, you may have to pay more for your health insurance premium. Insurance companies will need to increase the health insurance premium to ten percent due to a couple of reasons.

Many serious diseases have been included in health insurance policies as mandated by insurance regulator IRDAI. Another reason is that insurance companies have got to settle COVID-19 claims of up to Rs 14,000 crore. Additionally there has been an increase in medical inflation. All the reasons, combined together may make the insurance companies will increase health insurance premiums by up to 10 percent

Sources told Zee Media that health insurance premium will increase by 10% due to medical inflation, exclusion and COVID claim.

Starting October 1, 2020, the coverage of health insurance had become wider. Many more illnesses are now covered under the health insurance policy. Permanent illness outside the cover came down to 17. If earlier the exclusion was for 30 illness category, it is now be reduced to 17. Serious diseases like mental disorders, genetic diseases, neuro-related disorders and psychiatric disorders are no longer out of the insurance policy.

In a related news, IRDAI had in February 2021, said that with the objective of having a standard product with common coverage and policy wordings across the industry, the authority has decided to mandate all general and health insurers to offer the standard personal accident insurance product.

The product, IRDAI said, should be named as Saral Suraksha Bima, succeeded by the name of the insurance company, and no other name is allowed in any of the documents, said the regulator.

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General and health insurers shall offer this product from April 1, 2021, onwards, it added.