Page 13 - Insurance Times February 2022

holistic healthcare solutions. In order IRDAI has mandated all insurers to of- How health insurance
to provide seamless services under this fer Arogya Sanjeevani which will cover
rider, the Company has tied up with the basic healthcare costs such as transformed into a 'pull
Bajaj Finserv Health Ltd., a health-tech hospitalisation, including for Covid-19, product'
company that will leverage its exten- day-care treatment, pre- and post- Health insurance is no longer a push
sive network of more than 2,500 lab hospitalisation expenses, and offers product but a pull product, believe in-
chains and 90,000 doctors with various tax benefits. surers. While initial demand in recent
specialties to serve the customers of months was due to the pandemic,
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. The main objective of the regulator in
introducing the product in April 2020 gradually, more people are buying
The rider covers four key areas, includ- is to ensure standardisation, where the medical cover on their own and insur-
ing tele-consultation cover, doctor same policy terms are to be offered by ers believe the demand will continue
consultation cover, investigations cover all insurers. to increase.
for pathology or radiology expenses "The pandemic created a lot of aware-
and annual preventive health check-up Under Arogya Sanjeevani, the maxi- ness on health insurance. Initially, insur-
cover in a cashless manner. mum sum insured is Rs. 5 lakh and the
ers were a bit sceptical about how much
minimum Rs. 1 lakh. With the policy of the demand was due to a fear of
Demand for standard being the same with every insurer, it Covid and how much was awareness.
health cover catching up in is easier for a policyholder to choose Now we see that awareness also has
the insurer based on the premium, increased. People are looking at various
rural areas services offered and network hospitals. types of products and are more focused
With pandemic cases surging, people Though the product got clouded due to on understanding the offerings," said
are increasingly looking at a standard Shreeraj Deshpande, Head - Health
basic health cover rather than opting the out-break of Covid after its launch Businesses, SBI General Insurance.
for Covid-specific health insurance. and covid-specific cover of `Corona
Kavach' now, it is now picking up, said Deshpande expects the health insur-
"We notice that the demand for basic Sanjay Datta, Head- Underwriting and ance segment to continue growing
standard health cover product Arogya Claims, ICICI Lombard General Insur- faster than other lines of business for
Sanjeevani is on the rise, especially non-life insurers.
from customers in rural areas," S ance Company. "All those who had
Prakash, Managing Director, Star realised the need for health cover due "Earlier, the demand for health insur-
Health & Allied Insurance to the pandemic impact are now stay- ance was driven by major towns and
ing invested in health cover policies," cities but even people in Tier 2, 3 and
According to Prakash, Covid-19 needs he said, adding that this is also appli- 4 cities are buying such covers now,"
health insurance cover 'without any cable to other health cover products he said, but stressed that the penetra-
compromise' and Covid-specific covers
apart from Arogya Sanjeevani. tion of health insurance in the country
are not entirely helpful as they come still has a long way to go.
with many ifs and buts. Sapna Desai, Head of Marketing & Digi-
tal Sales, ManipalCigna Health Insur- Instead of Covid specific covers, people
"What happens if there are clinical are looking at comprehensive policies,
symptoms while a Covid diagnostic test ance said t h e impact of Covid has cer- and the average sum insured has in-
is negative? A comprehensive health tainly been instrumental in driving creased to anywhere between Rs. 3
cover is needed even if a person has no awareness about the significance of lakh and Rs. 5 lakh.
Covid after being suspected," he ex- purchasing a comprehensive health in-
plains. Precisely, this is the reason why surance policy, to cater to the problem Anup Rau, Managing Director and CEO,
a standard health cover is being seen of ever-increasing medical inflation. Future Generali India Insurance, also
as more useful by the people, he said. In the meanwhile, the insurance regu- said the demand for health insurance
"As a medical doctor I personally feel lator is considering extending the va- has not gone down despite the ebbing
this is advisable," Prakash added. of the second wave of the pandemic.
lidity of Covid-19-specific cover policies
While the urban middle class is gener- - Corona Kavach and Corona Rakshak - "One of the things we discovered is
ally more conscious of the need for a beyond the current fiscal. that the effort required to advise the
health cover, it is interesting to see customer to buy a health insurance
more demand for tier-2 and rural ar- However, last September, IRDAI had policy is far lower. I think people have
eas for the standard basic health cover extended the deadline for validity till an appreciation for health insurance,"
policy Arogya Sanjeevani. March 31, 2022. he said. T

The Insurance Times, February 2022 13