Page 14 - Insurance Times August 2020

Bupa Corona Kavach plan is by ages will help bring down the treat- Kavach policy, which was launched on
millennials as 43% buyers are in the ment cost for patients who have an July 10, noted Khuntia, stating that
age group of 18-30 years. The trend insurance policy. there are tremendous opportunities
shows that there is a demand for short- A majority of hospitals have already for the industry.
term covid-19-specific covers, espe- agreed to the standard packages. “Standardisation of products is key and
cially among the first-time buyers of "Around 80-85% of the cases are mild India has taken a huge leap by bring-
health insurance. The uncertainty to moderate. These are being stan- ing standard products,” Khuntia said.
around covid-19 is leading people to dardized depending on the number of
buy health cover for themselves and days a person stays in a hospital, facili- Out-of-pocket expense for health in
their families," said Krishnan ties provided to the patient and so on. India is around 60 per cent, which is
Ramachandran, MD and CEO, Max Many hospitals are on board and 60- much less in developing countries.
Bupa Health Insurance. 65% of the claims are being processed Nearly four per cent of the households
spend 25 per cent of their annual in-
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd based on the standardized rates," said come on health care, while 17 per cent
has also seen a spurt in demand for the Bhargav Dasgupta, Managing Director spend about 10 per cent of their an-
Kavach policy from the younger gen- and chief executive, ICICI Lombard nual income on health care. “We really
eration. General Insurance. need to address this to make medical
"Corona Kavach has seen a positive For complicated cases, especially those insurance more affordable and acces-
uptake from customers, especially with co-morbidities, it's difficult to pre- sible,” said Khuntia.
among individuals up to 45 years. We dict the treatment cost, and such cases
have witnessed higher inquiries for sum will be based on the actual cost of Ayushman Bharat moves
insured falling between Rs. 2-5 lakh, treatment.
considering treatment expenses for Since the covid-19 pandemic hit India, to cover 'missing middle'
covid-19. Policy period of six and a half many hospitals charged exorbitant Building on the Ayushman Bharat plat-
months and nine and a half months sums to treat patients. form, the Centre is looking to further
have witnessed a higher demand in the expand health insurance to cover the
market. We have seen major uptake Nearly 70k Covid-related “missing middle”. To this end, it is set
from the western part of the country claims worth Rs. 700 crore to launch a pilot to understand the ef-
with contribution from Maharashtra ficacy and costs of such a scheme. The
and Gujarat, followed by the south and settled: IRDAI Centre has invited expressions of inter-
east," said Gurdeep Singh Batra, head- Nearly 70,000 coronavirus-related est from insurance companies that
retail underwriting, Bajaj Allianz Gen- claims worth Rs 700 crore were settled want to participate in this project.
eral Insurance. by insurance companies since the pan- “The government is coming out with
Online insurance aggregator demic hit India in March, the Insur- another scheme for the ‘missing
Policybazaar said the company is sell- ance Regulatory and Development middle’, or basically those who are not
ing around 1,000 policies a day and Authority of India (IRDAI) said. eligible for Ayushman Bharat and do
85% of the buyers picked Corona The regulator also asked companies to not have their own or a company-spon-
Kavach policy whereas the remaining look at more standard products to in- sored health insurance cover. These
15% opted for the Corona Rakshak crease the coverage and allowed cus- are persons such as self-employed and
policy (benefit-based) policy. tomers to pay premium in installments small businesses,” said PC Kandpal,
to reduce the burden during the pan- Managing Director and CEO, SBI Gen-
Standardized packages demic. eral Insurance.
will bring down treatment During his inaugural address at the Under the pilot, the insurer would pro-
Confederation of Indian Industry’s vide Rs. 5 lakh floater health cover per
cost-Experts (CII’s) Southern Region Health Insur- family per annum with no cap on the
Insurance companies and hospitals are ance Conclave, Subhash C Khuntia, number or age of family members. All
working on standardizing packages for chairman, IRDAI, said the pandemic insured persons will receive complete
covid-19 treatment. The packages will will lead to a change in health insur- cashless treatment for procedures of-
be applicable to patients with mild to ance. In 20 days, 450,000 individuals fered in the pilot project in hospitals
moderate symptoms. Standard pack- were covered under the Corona empaneled under the Pradhan Mantri

14 The Insurance Times, August 2020