IRDAI since long has been examining on the concept of plain vanilla health insurance product uniform to all General Insurance Companies & Standalone Health Insurance Companies. Authority has now come up with Standardization of individual Health Insurance product easily comparable which is presently not possible as almost more than 100 Health Insurance products are offered by Non-Life Insurance Companies and standalone health insurance companies.
Uniformity in Health Insurance product shall provide customers, access to the basic health insurance covers based on the basic needs. It is usually felt difficult by customers to choose Health Insurance products which offered variant covers whether needed or not.
The indemnity health product, “Arogya Sanjeevani Health Policy” will have the basic mandatory covers while Add Ons or Optional Covers are not allowed.
Basic Mandatory Covers that shall be offered by all Non-Life Insurance Companies:
Basic Sum Insured offered ranges from minimum 50,000 to 10 Lakhs offered for Age group of 18-65 years. Standard product should come with lifelong renewability while the dependent children shall be covered from 0-25 years of age. This product shall be made available across all distribution channels including Point of Sales channel, Common Service Centre channel, & Micro Insurance agent’s channel (This product is proposed to offer as MI product subject to SI limits specified in MI Regulations 2015).
Regulator has given the freedom to Insurance companies to determine the price the proposed standard product complying with IRDAI, Health Insurance regulations 2016, Guidelines on Standardization in Health Insurance & Guidelines of Product filing in Health Insurance Business.
Regulator has asked Insurance Companies to determine the pricing mechanism to incentivize early entrants; young prospective policy holders. Further, pricing should attract such young entrants for continued renewals with incentives for favourable claim experience.
The attempt to make proposed Standard health indemnity product simple, will help potential customer to understand the product offered, easily compare the product and port the product if needed.