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You can now look forward to buying health insurance cover for a term of five years or more with no change in premium for three years.
There will be more choice in the type of products one can choose. Life insurers have been permitted to offer ‘health plus life combo’ products that come with a combination of life insurance cover offered by life insurers and health cover offered by general or health insurers.
Free-look period At a time when complaints of mis-selling are on the rise, a facility of free-look period is now available to customers with respect to new individual health insurance policies except those with a tenure of less than one year.
“The insured will be allowed a period of at least 15 days from the date of receipt of the policy to review the terms and conditions of the policy and return the same if not acceptable,’’ the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said in its newly-notified Health Insurance Regulations 2016. The portability of policies or migrations to suitable alternatives also need to be offered to customers.
The scope of coverage has been expanded as insurers have been asked to provide coverage for one or more systems covered under AYUSH treatment provided it has been undergone in a government hospital or any other recognised institute.
Incentives The regulator also wants the insurers to devise mechanism or incentives to reward policyholders for early entry, continued renewals, favourable claims experience, preventive and wellness habits and prompt disclosures. Products innovation could be taken up by the insurance companies as the new regulations allow pilot products, which are defined as close ended products with a policy term of one year.
The authority has gone tough on the group insurance schemes on which some concerns have been expressed of late. The insurers are prohibited from providing cover to any group which is formed with the main purpose of availing itself of insurance.
According to latest annual report of IRDAI, gross health insurance premium collected by non-life insurance companies was over Rs 20,000 crore with an annual growth rate of about 15 per cent.
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