New Health Insurance Norms To Be A Saviour For Policyholders- Know Them

As per the IRDAI's ruling this Monday, now insurance companies will not be able to deny cover for diseases contracted after the insurance policy is in place and also will have to extend health cover for diseases linked to hazardous work, mental illness, age related degenerative disorders as well as congenital diseases.

Also, the regulator has standardized exclusions which is to imply that if an insurance company does not wishes to include chronic kidney ailment, HIV/AIDS or epilepsy- some of the specified wordings have to be mentioned along with a specific waiting period that can be from 1 month to year after when the cover shall be extended.

Further, as per the IRDAI rules, those who clearly provide their pre-existing illnesses will be covered after the waiting period of 48 months or whichever as specified in the product expires.

Through the new norms, portability will be an easy feature with health insurance as the regulator says, "If a person transfers from one insurer to the other - and has already completed in part some of the waiting period requirement - then the new insurer may impose only the unexpired/residual waiting period not exceeding 48 months from the date of first issuance of porting out policy."

"Standardising of wordings of exclusions across all insurers will avoid any grey area and provide better understanding to customers. In line with medical treatments evolving and new methods coming up, insurers will be able to cover policyholders against them," said Gurdeep Singh Batra, head (retail underwriting), Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

But the downside of it can be seen in a tremendous hike in insurance premium if there is a steep rise in the claims made.

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