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Health Insurance- The government is unhappy with the huge increase in health insurance premiums every year by insurance companies and deciding the ‘package rate’ in collaboration with hospitals. Now the government is going to take some big steps to stop this arbitrariness. For this, discussions are going on with IREDA, insurance companies and hospitals.
New Delhi. The government is worried about health insurance becoming more expensive every year. The government is now going to take a big step to curb arbitrary increase in health insurance premium. The government can set a fixed limit for insurance premiums so that insurance companies cannot charge the amount arbitrarily. Medical inflation in India is 11.5%. That means the cost of treatment in hospitals is increasing at a rate of 11.5% every year, which is the highest in the world. After Covid i.e. from 2021-22 onwards, health insurance has started becoming more expensive.
The government has started discussions with insurance regulator IRDAI, insurance companies and hospitals regarding reforms in health insurance. Many important suggestions have been sent to the insurance regulator IRDAI, on which a decision can be taken soon. The government has brought many proposals regarding reduction in health insurance premium. This includes limiting agent commission to 20% and curbing package rates of treatment in hospitals.
Government started discussion
According to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, the Finance Ministry had held a closed-door meeting last week with CEOs of insurance companies, owners of big hospitals and IRDAI officials. In this, the Finance Ministry expressed displeasure over the arbitrary increase in health insurance premium every year.
Arbitrary premium increase is not acceptable
The government is unhappy with insurance companies increasing premiums arbitrarily every year. Now the government is considering taking measures to limit this growth. This means that insurance companies will not be able to increase health insurance premiums arbitrarily every year. Apart from this, it has also been proposed that the agent commission on the new health insurance policy should be maximum 20%.
Even on annual renewal, this commission should not be more than 10%. The government wants that every claim, every hospital bill and every discharge summary should be completely transparent. Similarly, setting arbitrary ‘package rates’ by insurance companies and hospitals together can also be curbed.
Preparation to bring National Health Claims Exchange
Hospitals protested against the government proposal saying that their margins are lower than before. Insurance companies increase premiums but are stingy in paying claims. On this, the Finance Ministry official said that that is why National Health Claims Exchange is being brought, where everything will be digital.
