How Covid-19 Is Impacting Health Insurance Sector

India is one of the top worst-hit countries by the COVID-19 pandemic. We can see that COVID-19 has impacted many sectors in India, especially the health insurance sector.

Demand for health insurance has increased exponentially, and certain positive changes are being seen in the health insurance industry over the past 2 years, along with some challenges.

The insurance providers are adjusting to the current insurance requirements and making changes accordingly in order to fit insurance aid to cover the implications of COVID-19. This has resulted in the inclusion of COVID-19 specific health insurance plans with the regular health insurance plans by the insurers for the policyholders.

With digitalization in the health insurance sector, one can simply purchase or renew their health insurance policy using the official website of the insurer. Due to the widespread COVID-19 pandemic, health insurance providers are facing varied challenges, but the health insurance sector is making its way out and is trying to fulfill the requirements of the customers and changes in the world.

The following points indicate how COVID-19 is impacting Health Insurance Sector: 

  • Product development:
  • Increased Sales:

At one point, the COVID-19 became one of the biggest health risks on the planet, and people started to realise the significance of having a financial backup for medical emergencies. Therefore, more and more people started investing in health insurance policies for themselves as well as their loved ones. Additionally, when health insurance providers started to develop exclusive health plans for COVID-19 related implications, the demand for health insurance policies skyrocketed and is still increasing. The importance of health insurance is not restricted to the pandemic but extends to any point of time in life since it provides you with a financial cushion in times of unforeseen medical emergencies.

  • Claim Payouts:

The COVID-19 impacted the health insurance sector in a good way as well as put a few challenges in front of the insurers. IRDAI mandated and instructed the health insurance providers to include COVID-19 covers in their regular health insurance plans for all the policyholders. Since the treatment for COVID-19 has not been included under the active products, claims made by the customers are additional burdens on the insurers, especially when treated at private hospitals. The claims from people suffering from critical diseases like diabetes, respiratory disorder, etc. along with the threat of COVID-19 have increased, resulting in financial recalibration from the insurer’s side. Considering the country-wide business disruption owing to the pandemic, the IRDAI has advised insurance companies to extend the grace or delay period by 30 days in case of policy lapse or renewal. This might pose some immediate liquidity challenges for insurance companies.

The global pandemic has transformed and brought a lot of changes in the health insurance sector. The health insurance sector is impacted positively in most aspects, but at the same time has also faced some challenges.

Buying health insurance and securing yourself and your family against any unforeseen emergency is one of the most crucial things you can do.

This article is authored by Mehul Shah, Senior Executive Vice President & Appointed Actuary at Kotak General Insurance, and the views expressed in this article are the author’s personal views.

3 ways to increase your health insurance cover

There has been a huge surge in demand for Health Insurance Plans in the last few years and more since the global pandemic of covid-19, along with the ever-increasing lifestyle diseases and healthcare costs. A health insurance policy is the best alternative to ease the extra burden of medical expenses on your pocket and availing of medical treatments seamlessly.

A health insurance policy acts as a protection cover in case you or your family members get hospitalized in case of a medical emergency or treatment of an illness. Buying a health insurance plan safeguards you against the financial implications of medical costs in such times of certain or uncertain medical emergencies.

“You might think that your health insurance policy offers an adequate cover to meet the treatment expenses in medical emergencies, but it will not come as a surprise since we all witnessed in the past year that there is a chance you might run out of the sum insured. It becomes imperative in such situations to increase your sum insured and cover your treatment cost,” says Mr. Ravichandran N, Chief Technical Officer, Kotak General Insurance.

Thus, you may need to consider increasing your health cover to get adequate protection against completely unexpected medical emergencies and tackle the exorbitant treatment costs at private hospitals.

Take a look at the following 3 ways to increase your health insurance cover:

Buy a super top-up plan:

Increasing your health insurance cover by getting a super top-up plan can be highly beneficial. The super top-up plans are specially designed to provide extra coverage over a particular deductible, the amount that is borne by the policyholder by directly paying from their own pocket or via their basic health insurance plan. In case, there are multiple claims within a year and the policyholder has already exhausted the original sum insured then the super top-up plan pays the extra amount. The benefits of the plan include – Daycare treatment, in-patient treatment, pre-and post-hospitalization expenses, cumulative bonus, etc.

Increase sum insured while renewing policy: 

“You get a choice to increase your policy coverage, or the sum insured at the time of your policy renewal, which also provides you with an advantage, that your existing waiting period does not get extended or renewed with it, which could be the case for shifting or buying a new policy altogether”, explains Mr. Ravichandran N. Increasing your sum insured at the time of renewing your health insurance policy may help you get adequate coverage for better financial protection.

Buy a comprehensive family health policy:

A family health insurance policy is a type of health insurance plan that is bought for the whole family where the premium and the total sum insured is shared amongst all family members. Purchasing the family health insurance can be more beneficial than buying just an individual health insurance plan since one can obtain more medical coverage for various treatment expenses and medical needs by paying a single premium.

Adequate health coverage is crucial, as you may never know when a health emergency can strike you. If you are looking for additional sum-assured, or want to increase your health insurance coverage, opt for a top-up plan, or buy add-on insurance cover in case of an emergency.

Ravichandran N, is the Chief Technical Officer at Kotak General Insurance, and the views expressed in this article are the author’s personal views.