Will rising Covid-19 cases push up the cost of your health insurance cover?

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Amid the second wave of Covid-19 hospitals across the country are flooded with patients. Limited availability of beds and medicines has made the worst nightmare come true for many. Insurance companies are worried about the impact of this massive rise in Covid claims on their loss ratios.

“The average health insurance claim size has gone up from Rs 1.3 to Rs 1.4 lakh. This along with a higher number of cases has increased the loss ratio of insurance companies massively. We will monitor the situation for 4-8 weeks to see the trend. But if the claims continue to rise and loss ratio keeps on increasing we might have to pass on the cost to customers,” said Dr Bhabatosh Mishra, Director- Claims, Underwriting & Product, Max Bupa Health Insurance.

A record single-day rise of 2,34,692 cases and 1,341 fatalities have pushed India’s COVID-19 tally to 1,45,26,609 and the death toll due to the viral disease to 1,75,649, the health ministry said on April 17. The number of active coronavirus cases in the country has surpassed the 16-lakh mark.

According to General Insurance Council, an umbrella body of general and health insurers, 10.26-lakh Covid-related claims worth Rs 14,849.53 crore were reported as of April 12, 2021. Out of this 8.81-lakh claims totalling Rs 8,029.33 crore have already been settled by insurance companies.

SK Sethi, Director and Founder, RIA Insurance Brokers, however, disagrees with the need of increasing the health insurance premium rates.

“As around 10 lakh policyholders have lodged claims, therefore, the claim figure is Rs 15,300 crores only, where else the health insurance portfolio itself has grown by 14 % or Rs 8000 crores during the year. There is no justification for an increase in premium rates because of Covid claims. Due to the non-availability of beds, normal procedures claims are down and as a result, insurers are getting lesser claims for other diseases. Pandemic type situation comes once in a while and insurers have to face it. We are sure that the Regulator (IRDAI) will look into the facts so that the interest of crores of retail policyholders are also protected,” he said.

With the number of  Covid cases rising, insurers are seeing a massive jump in their claim ratios.

“We are seeing an increasing trend in Covid-19 claims compared to January 2021. As compared to September 2020, we have received more than 60% of claims in March 2021. Generally, reimbursement claims take approximately 20-30 days to register, so we may see a further rise in March 2021 claims,” said Bhaskar Nerurkar, Head – Health Claims, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.