IRDAI nod for Arogya Sanjeevani group variant

Insurance regulator IRDAI on Friday said it was permitting insurers to offer standard health insurance cover Arogya Sanjeevani as a group policy. This version will be introduced under the same name — Arogya Sanjeevani — and terms and conditions of the standard policy retained. Insurers, however, get the freedom to fix the premium.

Private and public establishments are expected to benefit from the Arogya Sanjeevani group policy, in terms of covering the medical needs of their employees. Also, be it in individual or group form, the Arogya Sanjeevani policy covers COVID-19, the regulator said.

Under the group policy, insurers will be allowed to set their own minimum and maximum sum limits, subject to their board approved underwriting policy. The mandate of offering sum insured in multiples of ₹50,000 is not insisted for the group product, the regulator said issuing guidelines for the group variant.

Following its decision permitting launch of standard individual health insurance cover from April 1, all insurers dealing in health insurance are offering the product, IRDAI said.

The permission for Arogya Sanjeevani group policy follows close on the heel of the regulator’s decision allowing insurers to group version of the Covid-specific, short term, standard health policy Corona Kavach. Even then, IRDAI had said the group cover will be useful to private and public establishments for covering COVID-19 related medical needs of their employees.

The standard group Corona Kavach policy can provide protection to a large number of employees engaged in manufacturing, services, SMEs, MSMEs, logistics sector, migrant workers. It will “bring peace of mind to them, their family members and the employers,” the regulator had said.

Both the decisions assume significance in the backdrop of increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19. Also, as far as in April, the government had made medical insurance cover for workers a per-condition for the factories and industrial establishments that were allowed to resume operations.