Page 10 - Insurance Times November 2021

Covid related Health In- prefer continuing to work in the sec- It blamed "significantly higher de-
tor as it represents a respectable and mand," supply chain disruptions, na-
surance Claims drops stable career, according to a survey. tional bans on syringe exports and an

In a relief to General insurance com- Despite COVID-19 challenges, 68 per unpredictable supply of vaccines.
panies, Covid-related health insurance cent of respondents indicated a contin- The threatened shortage comes as
claims have dropped with the second ued preference to work in the sector. the flow of COVID-19 vaccine doses
wave of the pandemic.
Of which 47 per cent were with more increases after months of delays to the
However, there has been a rise in non- than a decade of experience, 45 per African continent, the world's least
Covid-related health claims and their cent of freshers and jobseekers and 51 protected region with less than 6% of
average ticket size has risen signifi- per cent of frontline workers, doctors, its population of 1.3 billion people fully
cantly, said Bhargav Dasgupta, Manag- expressed a strong affinity for the sec- vaccinated. Just five of Africa's 54 coun-
ing Director and CEO, ICICI Lombard tor, according to "Checking the Pulse tries are expected to reach the target
General Insurance. If this trend contin- of Healthcare Workers" report by glo- of fully vaccinating 40% of their popu-
ues, it could impact health insurance bal job site Indeed. lations by year's end.
premium.
For 83 per cent of the respondents,
According to Dasgupta, the insurer has healthcare presented a stable, respect- Govt plans to invest Rs
seen a 20 per cent increase in the aver- able career and handsome remunera- 100 crore per district to
age ticket size of these claims over two tion, it noted.
years, from 2019-20 to now, which is Almost 31 per cent were motivated by upgrade healthcare infra
about 10 per cent compounded growth. The government will invest Rs 100
the humanitarian nature of the job
"As Covid claims have come down, the and a sense of purpose, while 22 per crore on an average on every district
frequency of non-Covid health claims cent considered the profession as noble pan-India to upgrade healthcare infra-
has gone up. Some of the other infec- and challenging, it added. structure at the block level and pro-
tious diseases have spiked this year "The future looks as bright as the vide improved diagnostics, treatment,
such as malaria, chikungunya and den- healthcare industry wants it to be - and surveillance and containment mea-
gue. Also, there was some amount of sures for future pandemics.
it largely rests with the employers in
backlog of the elective surgeries that Union minister of health & family wel-
the sector.
have now caught up in this quarter," fare (MoHFW) Mansukh Mandaviya said
he said adding that the ticket size of this was a part of the government's Rs
claims has gone up for similar ailments. World faces shortage of 64,180-crore PM Ayushman Bharat
"We'll have to see if it's a temporary syringes as COVID vaccine Health Infrastructure Mission
increase or permanent in nature. This doses rise (PMABHIM) to upgrade the country's
could perhaps be because of additional health infrastructure. Investments un-
African health officials and the United
RT-PCR tests that hospitals have do or der the mission would be made be-
Nations are warning of a looming short-
some more procedures that they're fol- tween 2021-22 and 2025-26. The mis-
age of more than 2 billion syringes for
lowing, but hopefully that will stabilise," sion seeks to plug the gaps in healthcare
mainly low- and middle-income coun-
he said, adding that if healthcare costs tries around the world as the supply of infrastructure and address the regional
continue to increase at the level they COVID-19 doses rises, and routine vac- imbalances in facilities.
are going up it could start impacting cinations could be affected, too. As a part of the programme, 79,415
the premium for customers. health and wellness centres have been
The UN children's agency said the set up across the country, and the fig-
Despite challenges 68 pc shortfall would affect up to 2.2 billion ure would go up to 1,50,000 by next
healthcare workers prefer auto-disposable syringes that lock au- year. Addressing a press conference,
tomatically to prevent them from be-
to continue in sector: Re- ing used again. Mandaviya said 134 different types of
tests would be done for free at district-
port "We are not anticipating a significant level facilities, which will not only save
Even as the burnout rate is high follow- supply shortage of the more standard costs but also reduce inconvenience for
ing the pandemic, 68 per cent of the syringes used in high-income coun- the poor. Critical care hospitals will be
healthcare workers said they would tries," the agency said in a statement. set up in 602 districts.

10 The Insurance Times, November 2021