Covid-19 positive cases in India have surged past the 3.65 million figure, however, in the last few months a little more than 1 lakh people have so far utilised their health insurance policy for the treatment of the novel coronavirus.
Amit Chhabra, Health Business Head, Policybazaar.com said that according to numbers collated by insurance companies, approximately only 1,00,000 claims have come to insurers for a settlement involving a cumulative amount of Rs 1,644 crore this works out to an incurred expenditure of Rs 1.64 lakh, on an average, per policyholder.
The 1 lakh claims when viewed against the over 3.65 million Covid-19 cases translate to just 2.7 per cent of the individuals who tested positive and had some kind of health insurance coverage.
Amit Chhabra, Health Business Head, Policybazaar.com said on the other hand, general insurers and specialised health insurers are witnessing a steady rise in non-covid related health insurance claims as normalcy returns after the stringent lockdown is eased by the Government.
There has been a 64 per cent increase in July for such claims versus average claims in April, May and June. Of these claims, only 10 per cent are Covid-19 related claims.
The rise in claims is mostly coming from elective procedures that were postponed on account of Covid-19 in the last few months.
During the lockdown period, non-life insurers saw an almost 40 per cent drop in non-Covid claims. The claims are mainly for treatments of cancer, dialysis, cataract surgeries and cardiac treatments.
Time to Prioritise Health InsuranceDespite a hike in claims in the last 2 months, the insurance penetration in the country still seems to be low, since the health insurance claims made till now are only 2.7 per cent of the total number of people who have caught the virus till now.