Keeping the interest of the policyholders at the forefront, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is contemplating to make health insurance products more flexible. The proposed changes would enable policyholders to switch their insurer with the benefit of pre-existing diseases (if any), being covered from the first year of change itself. Thus if a policyholder has completed four years under a health policy with a particular insurer, and wishes to switch to another insurer, the policyholder will be covered for all the pre-existing diseases from the first year under the new policy without having to wait for another four years.
It is noteworthy that at present, pre-existing diseases are covered only after the completion of four years in a policy.
For senior citizens, who have been covered (till retirement) under a group mediclaim by their employers, but did not have an individual health cover; shall also be automatically covered by an insurer when they buy an individual health policy.
Reacting on this issue Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO of Optima Insurance Brokers, said “There should be portability in products. When there is such flexibility, insurance companies are always on their toes. This will force insurers to review their claim management and there will always be a pressure to perform better”.
However on this Mr. Sanjay Datta - Head of health insurance at ICICI Lombard, feels that to carve out such a product will not be easy, and the entire industry will need to sit together and sort out difficulties.
We believe that if such an inititative is implemented (by IRDA), it will be a sigh of relief for the policyholders, as this will enable them to swtich from insurers who do not provide the right services and moreover charge a high premium. Also in our opinion, having such portability in health insurance products would garner healthy competition among insurers and provide a level playing field for them.
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arredondo@notaria173.com
Jan 19, 2012
No cosmopolitan on this end, simply a good piece. |
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