Health insurers have seen a significant rise in non-COVID claims as the cost of hospitalisation has gone up, giving an indication that premiums could see some revisions.
According to data shared by Max Bupa, there has been 33 per cent rise in the overall health insurance claims in the past 6 months while COVID-19 related claims have declined by 94 per cent. Claims for infectious diseases have seen a five-fold increase during the period of April to September 2021 followed by Claims related to the digestive system with a rise of 123 per cent.
People who have been waiting for COVID-19 cases to come down for other surgeries and treatments are now heading to hospitals. The average ticket size of claims has also gone up.
“People who were waiting are now coming out, and there are some seasonal cases too like chikungunya and dengue. Health insurance premiums are static right now. However, premiums can be changed after three years only. If the pressure comes on the companies then the premiums will be revised, as there has been an inflation in hospitalisation costs. Generally, the increases are on the entire portfolio,” said Rakesh Jain, CEO, Reliance General Insurance.
Some insurers have already increased premiums of some group insurances. Sanjay Datta, Chief of underwriting and claims at ICICI Lombard says, “Insurance premiums could rise later as approvals are needed from the regulator. We have seen some increases in employee-employer insurances. However, there are no changes in the underwriting for now.”
According to data on general insurance council, health insurance premium income by insurers till September 2021 rose to Rs 37,108.00 crore, recording a 29.22 percent growth year on year. The pandemic has brought more awareness on health insurance front. Similarly, life insurers saw 22 percent year-on-year growth in new business premium in September.
Insurance aggregator PolicyX says that the percentage of hike in premiums varies from company to company but it can range between 10-30 percent. According to their Insurance Price Index, term insurance’s price index witnessed a minimal hike of 1 percent in the premium value in the third quarter of this year.
