Health insurance plans for senior citizens have become unaffordable after steep premium hikes. There have been cases of the premium being increased by 400% and those where the premium exceeded coverage limit. Here’s what experts have to say on this.
Senior citizens have to deal with high renewal premiums in health insurance plans, besides other restrictions. Insurers blame the rising cost of healthcare for premium hikes. ET Wealth talks to industry experts to get all sides of the story.
Health insurance policies for senior citizens have become unaffordable after steep hikes in premium. There have been instances of the premium being increased by 400%, then upon protest brought down to 300%. There was a case where the premium exceeded the coverage limit. The insured have to file consumer complaints to redress grievances. However, only a few can get into long-drawn-out legal battles at an advanced age. Many who have diligently paid premium for years have been compelled to opt out as the renewal premium has become too high. It is senior citizens who are more prone to illness, and by making policies unviable for them, the insurance company benefits at their expense.
Insurers don’t understand the objective and history of mediclaim policies. Healthcare is the responsibility of the state. But the budget allocation for healthcare is extremely low. Facilities in government hospitals are poor, as is the ratio of beds and doctors to patients. In this backdrop, medical insurance policies were introduced by nationalised insurance companies. The objective was to enable citizens to get access to affordable healthcare in private hospitals. The scheme was not meant to be a profit-making one.
The regulator has lost sight of the objective of mediclaim. Instead of protecting the insured, it is allowing insurers to discontinue existing policies and compelling the insured to migrate to another scheme. The change allows insurers to hike premium of the “new product”. The Supreme Court judgement that a policy must be renewed on identical terms and conditions so long as the insured pays the premium and does not commit any fraud, is violated.
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