A committee of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India that studied various aspects of health insurance, including prospects of launching long-term policies, is ready with its report.
“The report is more or less finalised, we are evaluating that,” IRDAI Chairman T.S. Vijayan said here on Wednesday. It would, however, be sometime before the report is implemented since health insurance as a product is already available and the Committee was set up to suggest modifications.
Mr. Vijayan, speaking to presspersons at an ICICI Lombard event to mark the issue of one lakh long-term two-wheeler insurance policy, said that as with other such committees set up by the regulator the panel on health insurance had representation from the industry and consumers. This ensured that the resultant view is comprehensive and not that of just the IRDAI.
The Committee, he replied to a query, had gone into the different aspects from capital, solvency, claims procedures to the costs associated with and without the TPAs.
On the possibility of long-term health insurance policies, he said that there was scope for health savings policy. To another query on the response of companies to the recent increase in FDI limit to 49 per cent, he said six to seven companies had evinced interest.
Earlier, addressing the meeting Mr. Vijayan highlighted the need to enhance insurance penetration in the country. “The entire assets have to be insured,” he said, citing statistics that reveal that only 7 per cent of the assets in India are insured whereas in the US it is as much as 80 per cent. Though there are 54 general and life insurance firms in India, “we have hardly scratched the surface,” he added.
On their part, the companies initiate efforts at cutting the cost of product, particularly by going in more digitisation, he said.
ICICI Lombard managing director and CEO Bhargav Dasgupta said the long term two-wheeler insurance policy was a game changer in the industry. About 40 per cent of the renewals were for long term policies.
