Health insurance is very important in today’s time. This comes in handy in case of emergency. IRDAI has issued a circular in April to ensure that everyone in the country, especially senior citizens, has health insurance. According to the circular, now there is no age limit for taking health insurance. How will the general public and the insurance sector benefit from IRDAI’s decision?
Insurance after Retirement: In today’s time, health insurance has become very important. Illness never comes without warning. In such a situation, when there is a serious illness or a common illness, we feel a lot of tension regarding its expenses. Many times, due to lack of money, we are not able to get proper treatment. Many times we have to borrow money for treatment, which makes us financially weak. In such a situation, Mediclaim is a very good option to reduce the treatment expenses.
Many people in the country do not yet have health insurance. If we talk about senior citizens, companies do not provide them insurance due to serious illness or lack of income source. Now this will not happen. Actually, till the last financial year there was an age limit for health insurance, but now it is not so.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has removed the age limit for insurance this year. IRDAI had issued a circular in this regard in April. IRDAI clearly said in the circular that now even people above 65 years of age can take health insurance.
Today we will tell you how this decision of IRDAI will benefit the health sector as well as the general public?
Harit Bhargava, Financial Advisor said that
Senior citizens will benefit greatly from this decision of IRDAI. Now, if a person above 65 years of age has any serious illness, he will still be able to get health insurance. This will reduce the burden of their medical expenses and senior citizens can take advantage of it. All the insurance companies are busy launching new products for their senior citizens. After the decision of IRDAI, there will be a boom in the insurance sector.
How will the new health insurance provision help?
Till the last financial year, a person above 65 years of age used to face a lot of difficulty in getting health insurance, but now it is not so. IRDA has ordered insurance companies that they can no longer refuse to provide health insurance to any person.
Apart from this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India asked the companies to design special insurance products for students, children along with senior citizens. So that people of all categories can easily get insurance.
At present there are only a few insurance companies which offer special policies for senior citizens. Now all the companies will launch special insurance products for all categories, after which we may see an increase in the number of insurance holders.
If a senior citizen has not got health insurance for any reason in the last financial year, then he can easily take mediclaim after the decision of IRDAI.
IRDA has also reduced the policy waiting period. Now the waiting period of the policy has become 36 months instead of 48 months.
Understand it this way, if a policy holder has serious diseases like cancer, heart and AIDS, then the policy which earlier took 8 years to cover, will now be covered in just 5 years.
At the same time, if a person has taken health insurance before March 31, 2024, then all his diseases will be covered in just 6 years. Apart from this, IRDAI has also made improvements in claim settlement.
What will be the effect of IRDAI’s decision?
After the issuance of new health insurance provisions by IRDA, there may be a boom in the health insurance sector. If there is a separate insurance plan for children, students and senior citizens, then the number of policy holders will increase. Due to which there can be growth in the insurance sector.
If there is a special plan for all categories then people will show interest in buying health insurance. The General Insurance Council had released the figures of premium earnings by health insurance. According to these figures, health insurance companies have collected Rs 1.09 lakh crore from insurance premiums in the business year ending March 2024.
In such a situation, it is expected that if the number of insurance products increases, then the insurance companies will also get financial benefits.
The Government of India is also taking steps to ensure that all the people of the country have health insurance. The government is already running Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) for the weaker section. This is a kind of mediclaim. In this, the beneficiary can get free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh.
How will senior citizens benefit?
Senior citizens will benefit greatly from this decision of IRDAI. Now even if a person above 65 years of age has a serious illness, he will still get the benefit of health insurance. This will reduce the burden on their medical expenses.
After this decision, senior citizens will also be able to avail the benefits of better health services. Earlier, due to his age, he could not get health insurance, but now he will be able to get medical treatment without any financial burden.
This decision of IRDA is a better step for the insurance sector. On one hand, it is providing health services to senior citizens and at the same time it is also strengthening the insurance market.
