NEW DELHI: The health insurance premiums have increased anywhere between 10-25% recently, thanks to higher average claims and increasing healthcare inflation. Sources from the health insurance sector say average claims over the past two years have gone up from Rs 40,000-50,000 to Rs 80,000.
Data shared by insurance aggregators with TNIE shows there has been an increase in premiums across all the age groups, with a maximum average rise of 36% in the 18-30 years age bracket. In the rest of the age groups, the average increase has been 20-25%. Among those which increased the premium recently include Star Health, Universal Sompo, Manipal Cigna, and Care Health Insurance, which claims an insurance aggregator.
Dr S Prakash, MD, Star Health, says that it has increased the premium of one of its policies by 8-9%. While he blames healthcare inflation for the increase in premiums, he says that the hike in premiums has been lower than the healthcare inflation. He says the average claim size has gone up by 25-30% in the case of Star Health. Experts say the rise in premium can be attributed to the pent-up backlog.
“Usually, health insurance companies increase the premium every three years. However, during the pandemic, the insurance regulator barred them from raising the premium. So, a lot of recent hikes are due to that as well,” says an industry insider who refused to be named.