BENGALURU: Karnataka stands third among states, after Maharashtra and Gujarat, in terms of Covid-19 insurance claims from the start of the pandemic until April 1, 2021. Patients in the state have claimed Rs 11,36,36,58,040 crore through public and private insurance so far. The figures for Maharashtra and Gujarat are Rs 4,345 crore and Rs 1,922 crore, respectively.
As per an analysis done by Jeevan Raksha, an initiative of Proxima, supported by Public Health Foundation of India, average Covid-19 claims from some districts are higher than Bengaluru, although the cost of running a hospital in the metropolitan city is significantly higher. This is as per data from the General Insurance Council of India.
Patients in cities like Yadgir, Vijayapura, Belagavi, Chitradurga, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Tumakuru, Bagalkot, Gadag and Shivamogga claimed higher average Covid-19 insurance amounts than those in Bengaluru, which saw average medical insurance claim for Covid-19 at Rs 1,42,000. Excluding Gadag, Shivamogga and Bengaluru, all the districts mentioned had a higher average claim amount than the Karnataka average of Rs 1,50,000. Bengaluru, in fact, had a lower average claim amount than the pan-India average of Rs 1,47,000.
Higher avg claims in some districts
Mysore Sanjeev, convener, Project Jeeva Raksha, said this clearly indicates that some of the hospitals in Karnataka are leveraging the helplessness of the general public and indulging in profiteering. “There is a need for uniform rates for Covid treatment across all districts in Karnataka. The government should relax the eligibility criteria for enrolling under the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (government health insurance cover). There are several instances wherein a large number of Covid patients have had to pay over Rs 10 lakh towards hospitalisation. The family members had to borrow and also break their life’s savings to meet the hospitalisation charges,” Sanjeev pointed out.
He gave the example of average claim amount in some of the North-East states being as low as Rs 28,500 in Meghalaya, Rs 73,350 in Sikkim, Rs 81,250 in Manipur, whereas in big states such as Maharashtra, the average claim is is Rs 1.2 lakh, in Tamil Nadu Rs 1.75 lakh, in Haryana Rs 1.55 lakh and Karnataka Rs 1.5 lakh.
“Ideally, there should not have been a difference of not more than 5-10 per cent. Shockingly, there is a 75-80 per cent difference in the average claim between districts in Karnataka. For instance, in Mysuru, the average reported claims is Rs 1.07 lakh, whereas in Belagavi, Chitradurga and Vijayapura, it is Rs 1.7 lakh, and in Yadgir, it is Rs 1.84 lakh,” Sanjeev added.Despite the maximum number of claims being reported in Bengaluru, the claim amount is lower than some of the other districts.