The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (Irda) has suggested risk-based capital system for the health insurers. CS Rao, chairman, Irda while speaking at the ?Health Insurance Summit? organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Friday said the healthcare industry has two concerns: insurance and removal of tariffs.
Once tariffs are removed, insurance will get a boost and it would prompt the general insurer to pay attention to health insurance. With senior citizens getting an unfair deal from the existing health insurance schemes, Rao added that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, he said.
GC Chaturvedi, joint secretray and mission director, National Rural health Mission, ministry of health & family welfare, opined that the healthcare sector will look different by the next decade. With an addition of 0.11 beds per annum and 100 million Indians covered by self-funded government schemes, most public private partnerships will reduce high out of pocket health insurance.
According to Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, CII National Healthcare Council, and chairman, Apollo Hospitals, health is the most neglected industry despite contributing to over 5% to the national income.
Some hindrances to the growth of health insurance industry include 24% below poverty line and 35% illiterate population. As per the study undertaken by the WHO, insurance in India is mainly financed from out of pocket expenditure in comparison to all other countries involved in the study including China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam among others.
DD Singh, executive director-health insurance, Life Insurance Corporation of India, stated that the corporation is launching its new health insurance schemes shortly. ?We have selected eight third-party administrators for managing our schemes. The corporation has tied up with three banks Syndicate Bank, Bank of America, Axis Bank to settle the health insurance schemes,? he said.