If General Insurance Council (GIC), the representative body of general insurers has its way, the long awaited issue of portability of health insurance policy can see the light of the day soon.
A blueprint for the same has already been prepared by GIC and the same is likely to come up for discussion during the next meeting of GIC later this week in Mumbai. Talking to FE on the sidelines of an insurance summit in Mumbai on Tuesday, SL Mohan, secretary general, GIC, said ? portability of health insurance policy soon become a possibility and we are trying hard to make it a reality.??
Mohan said GIC has already put a proposal before Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to increase the terror pool coverage to Rs 1,000 crore per location from the current strength of Rs 750 crore. Industry may come out with portable premium for health insurance products in near future, hoped he.
In case, the proposal was approved during GIC?s meeting on December 12, it is likely to send a proposal for further approval before IRDA. According to him the prices of some of the non-life products like fire and engineering have fallen drastically due to the sheer competition as a result of de-tariffication. However, GIC is of the firm view that market correction will happen in those products by the end of the currengt fiscal. Mohan said that at the moment, most companies are quoting burning costs because of competition. ?Once they get their yearly results after March , the trend may take a turn for better, he hoped .
Talking on the impact of global meltdown on the general insurance industry as a whole, Mohan agreed that the impact may be there to some extent. Still he hoped that the domestic general insurance industry can cope with it by cutting our costs and leakages.
Asked to comment on the impact of the freedom given by IRDA on terms and conditions, Mohan said though the basic product will remain the same, still some innovations are likely to happen on the product design front.
