The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered issue of notices to the central and State governments and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) on a PIL petition seeking measure for medical insurance for senior citizens either free of cost or at affordable rates, including for COVID-19 treatment.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order on the petition filed by Letzkit Foundation, Bengaluru.
The petitioner pointed out that a large number of senior citizens in the country, who are not covered under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and other health schemes aimed at economically weaker sections, either have no health insurance facility as they can’t afford it or are paying high annual premium to get health insurance coverage from public or private health insurance service providers.
Even in health insurances provided to senior citizens above 60 years after collecting high premium amount, the insurance companies impose several conditions to exclude pre-existing ailments and diseases and use these conditions to narrow down the claims, the petitioner said, while pointing out that CGHS and health schemes for the poor does not exclude pre-existing ailments and diseases from health coverage.
Pointing out that around 8% of the country’s population was above 60 years as per the 2011 census data, the petitioner said that shockingly, the IRDAI’s recent directive to insurance companies to provide COVID-19 health insurance excludes senior citizens aged above 65.
The petitioner also pointed out that senior citizens, who are covered under health insurance, are not given benefits for COVID-19 for various reasons or were asked to pay additional premium. “It is not enough for authorities to just make available medical instance policies but such policies should affordable to every citizen irrespective of their place of living and avocation,” the petitioner contended.
