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| The players are :- |
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- Insurance Companies
- TPA's
- Hospitals
- Insured
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| In the recent months we have come across few news items with heading like :- |
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l Insurers dictating to doctors
l Oriental Insurance set the trend by increasing premium rate for senior citizens.
l Clout of elders as pressure group has grown. Elderly have choice for getting insurance even if rates are higher.
l Public Sector Insurance Companies suffer heavy loss due to group insurance.
l Agents are being be paid commission for insuring 50+ for health insurance. |
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The facts are :
Insurance Companies want to pick up large group health premium by giving extra discount. In one of the newsleter we read about CAG observation that United picked up LIC group insurance premium by giving extra discount of Rs. 8.57 cr. As a result of this naturally they had to incur losses. If losses under Health Insurance are to be controlled then corrective steps have to be taken. As a result of this we came across another news item with following heading. |
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Insurer told not to victimise 45 plus
Reacting to the outrage over insurance companies' bias against the middle-aged and elderly, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has put the state-owned Oriental Insurance Company on notice for discouraging the sale of medical insurance to those above 45. |
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The regulator has asked Oriental to give up its policy to deny commission to agents for renewal of mediclaim policies by those above 55. The policy was a thinly disguised tool to weed out the category which is considered to be more vulnerable to health problems and thus not an attractive business propostion. |
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The intervention is sure to be lauded by the ageing population, which had screamed foul over what they called discrimination. However, it merely skims the surface of the industry's prejudice against the greying population. |
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Discouraging mediclaim cover and non-renewal of existing policies to those above 45 stretches across the sector. While IRDA has acted against the public insurance company, it has not ventured to question private players who were either offering no health cover to those over 50 years or were charging twice the premium that the state-owned insurance charged. That has also caused heartburn among PSU competitors in an open market. |
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The move against Oriental comes after it decided to withdraw commission to its agents on medical policies sold to persons above 55 years. It had reduced the comission by 5% on policies to those above 45 years. The regulator has asked the PSU to pay commission on at least those mediclaim policies which are renewed by those above 55 years. It has, however, refrained from issuing an advisory on new policies sold to the said age-group. |
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At the root of it all is the cut-throat competition and the growing opinion that the elderly are "insurance hazards" in view of their susceptibility to medical problems. |
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| Recently oriental come out with proposal to increase the premium rate for elder In another newsitem we came across |
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