Health insurance eye claim surge: Flu side-effects

Insurance majors be expecting a rise in sale of health insurance products over the next few months due to the growing fear of the spread of swine flu cases in India.

Reliance General Insurance president and CEO KA Somasekharan Said, While all existing health insurance policy cover hospitalisation expenses of patients affected by swine flu, the knowledge of a health insurance product will spread much faster due to the virus, feel insurers. “Enquiry calls on health insurance have increased much over the past few weeks,”

“The importance of health insurance becomes apparent in situations like this.” Iffco-Tokio executive director (marketing) NK Kedia echoed the same sentiment. But insurers are yet to see any jump in health insurance claims as treatment for virus is provided mostly in government hospitals that charge nominal fees. However, as the government is gearing up to include private hospitals to offer swine flu treatment, insurers are expecting a surge in claims. The private hospitals are not yet providing any treatment for the flu.

ICICI Lombard health vertical head Sanjay Datta said: “So far, we have received very few claims. But we are ready to attempt a surge in claims on account of swine flu in future.” As of August 25, the total number of people affected from the H1N1 virus stood at 17,015 across the country while the number of losses was 64, as per government data.

Both life and non-life insurers provide health insurance schemes. There are currently more than 30 health insurance products offered by as many insurance companies across India. Sale of health insurance products in India registered around 30% growth and garnered Rs 6,625 crore in terms of new premium collection for the year ended March 2009 due to upward knowledge and rising healthcare costs, as per IRDA findings.

However, the penetration of health insurance is still low at around 2% of India’s 1.1 billion population.