Since pandemic began: Covid health cover claims surge to 36K crore, most from Maharashtra – The Indian Express

Insurance companies received 28.46 lakh claims for Rs 36,003 crore in the last 22 months (till February 4) from people affected by the coronavirus, with claims worth Rs 4,300 crore coming in the last four months.

Of this, insurers have settled 25.53 lakh claims for Rs 23,595 crore so far since the Covid pandemic began in March 2020, according to figures compiled by the General Insurance Council. Companies have repudiated 1.98 lakh claims for Rs 1,459 crore so far. Maharashtra reported the maximum number of claims at 9.3 lakh for Rs 9,637 crore, followed by Gujarat with 3.44 lakh claims for Rs 4,345 crore, and Tamil Nadu with 2.85 lakh claims for Rs 4,144 crore. Insurers settled 8.46 lakh claims for Rs 6,511 crore in Maharashtra.

The average size of the Covid claim at the all- India level works out to Rs 1,26,467 while the size of the settled claim per person is
Rs 92,411. Indicating poor health cover penetration, insurers received only 93,386 claims for Rs 701 crore from Kerala, which reports the most Covid cases now. The average size of the claim settled per person in Kerala is also one of the lowest at Rs 57,294. Uttar Pradesh
accounted for the maximum amount settled per person at Rs 1,24,720.

Telangana reported the highest average per person Covid claim of Rs 183,670.

However, in the backdrop of falling incomes because of medical exigencies or job losses, many Indians are scaling down the coverage of their health insurance policies in a bid to save on the premium amount expended. “Adding to this alarming trend is the fact that nearly 30 per cent of the Indian population remain uninsured and you have a dangerous situation that is detrimental to our country’s goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030,” said Satish Gidugu, CEO & whole-time director at Medi Assist Healthcare Services.

“To reverse this course, it is imperative that tax paying citizens are incentivised to opt for a higher health insurance cover while the
government focuses on its slew of initiatives aimed at the bottom 50 per cent of India’s population,” Gidugu said.

On most insurance products, the GST rate is 18 per cent, which thrusts the premium to 118 per cent for the end-user. The abolition or at least a sizeable reduction in the GST on all personal lines of products — from 18 per cent to 5 per cent will encourage more people to buy health insurance, said ManipalCigna Health Insurance, CFO Srikanth Kandikonda.

Insurance companies mobilised Rs 54,235 crore as health cover premium during the nine-period ended December 31, 2021, a rise of 28.78 per cent from

Rs 42,113 crore in the same period of last year. Of this, mobilisation through retail insurance cover rose to Rs 20,995 crore. Public sector New India Assurance collected Rs 12,050 crore as health premium during the nine-month period, as against Rs 8,212 crore in the same period a year ago.

Gidugu said there is an opportunity to reduce the GST rates on health insurance premiums, allow input credit on GST paid towards employee health insurance and eliminate perquisite tax completely on employee medical reimbursements. This will create a significant impact on the overall adoption of health insurance.