Page 15 - Insurance Times August 2020

Jan Arogya Yojana (or, Ayushman Comprehensive policies “Health insurance will continue to pick
Bharat). It would cover all pre-existing up going forward, with the pandemic
diseases, and the exclusions would be with higher sum insured creating a renewed interest in health
the same as those for Ayushman boost health cover sales insurance,” CARE Ratings noted in a
Bharat. While the Covid-19 pandemic has recent report.

“The scheme will help India be fully made health insurance the largest pre- According to Rakesh Goyal, Director,
insured. Often, people are pushed into mium segment in general insurance, Probus Insurance, most customers pre-
poverty due to health costs, which can consumers are preferring to buy com- fer to buy comprehensive health cov-
be minimised. We have sent our ex- prehensive policies with higher sum ers of at least Rs. 10 lakh, along with
pression of interest to participate in insured rather than just targeted cov- a top-up. The number of transactions
the initiative, which can promote ers. for health insurance on his platform
health insurance awareness and make “Increase in sales of health insurance has increased by about three times up
more people get health cover,” said S policies started towards the end of to July compared to February this year.
Prakash, Managing Director, Star
April and start of May with the surge “Corona-specific covers are seeing de-
Health and Allied Insurance. in Covid cases in India. Health indem- mand, but a lot of it if from people
The government document inviting nity policies have seen a sharp rise in who cannot afford a full cover or have
EoIs said: “The uncovered population sales,” said Amit Chhabra, Health Busi- co morbidities or are too old,” he
comprises varied sections of non-poor ness Head, Policybazaar.com. added. Insurers also said the standard
population — informal sector workers, The sum insured has increased signifi- Arogya Sanjeevani policy is seen to be
self-employed, professionals, employ- cantly to between Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. a plain vanilla product with limitations
ees in MSMEs, spread across 1 crore as people realised that the cost on room rent and a co-pay element
occupations, geography and income that are often not preferred by many
for Covid-19 treatment can be very
strata.” Lack of awareness, high. customers.
affordability and distribution make it a
challenge for them to buy health “Earlier, people were happy with a Max Bupa policyholders
cover, it added. cover of Rs. 5 lakh, but now nobody lose Max cashless facility
wants to compromise on their health.
Qualifying insurers will need to sign a Such high sum insured policies have Max Healthcare is in a stalemate with
three-year MoU with the National also become more affordable and a 30- Max Bupa Health Insurance Co. Ltd
Health Authority, and submit individual year-old person can get a Rs. 1-crore and has discontinued cashless treat-
pilot plans with the proposed group to sum insured health cover for as less as ment in its chain of hospitals, leaving
be covered including size, family com- Rs. 9,000 per year,” he said, adding policyholders in a fix as they will not be
position, demographics, geographical that the Corona Rakshak and Corona able to avail the cashless claim facility.
location, product features, inclusions, Kavach policies have also seen good Max Bupa is a joint venture between
exclusions, additional packages, pre- traction but are taken by people who Indian private equity firm True North
mium per family and hospital network can’t afford a full health cover. and UK’s healthcare services firm
(in addition to the PMJAY set).
Data with General Insurance Council Bupa. Max Healthcare is the amal-
The issue has also been raised by show that health insurance premium in gamation of the erstwhile Max India
Ayushman Bharat CEO Indu Bhushan, July amounted to 32.7 per cent of the into Max Healthcare and the
who stressed the need to cover the general insurance market, taking over demerger of the healthcare business of
‘Missing Middle’. Ayushman Bharat the motor segment which stood at Radiant Life into Max Healthcare.
scheme now offers insurance of Rs. 5 30.3 per cent. “The contract between Max
lakh per family and covers about 10.74 Similarly, gross direct premium income Healthcare and Max Bupa had expired
crore families or 50 crore beneficiaries.
underwritten by general and in May 2019. Max Healthcare has
Insurers say that another 10-11 crore standalone health insurers grew by been in discussion with Max Bupa for
have some health insurance cover, ei- 10.44 per cent between April and July a fresh contract for the last 15 months
ther purchased on their own or as part this year to Rs. 18,415.5 crore, even and has been extending cashless ser-
of their employment compensation as the overall general insurance indus- vices to its beneficiaries over all these
package. But a large chunk does not try expanded by 1.62 per cent in the months even though there hasn’t been
have any cover. period. a valid contract. T

The Insurance Times, August 2020 15