How to buy your own health insurance
Health insurance companies are being inundated with requests for information about their policyholders, as a record number of new enrollees are seeking help to determine if they are eligible for the government’s new universal health insurance scheme.
India is in the midst of a massive healthcare overhaul, with a scheme to provide free primary health care and a range of private insurance products to its citizens, including those on social security schemes.
As the number of enrollees in the scheme has risen, health insurers have been inundated by requests from consumers looking to fill out the details on their own.
But the government is trying to crack down on requests, and many companies have now asked their customers to register with them to make sure they are covered.
This has prompted a surge in requests from Indian consumers to buy their own health plans.
The government has also said it is monitoring the issue and will update its website with details about all the new enrollee applications.
“As the government has not provided any guidelines for enrollees to take out their own insurance, we are not able to provide information about the enrollees on our website,” said Ajay Nandakumar, an official at the Ministry of Health, who declined to be named.
“But we are working to update the website with the latest enrollees information so we can provide the best care to them,” he added.
Indian consumers are asking questions about whether they are guaranteed coverage, which will be decided by a panel of doctors and other health professionals and may depend on a range from the personal to the family medical history.
Many Indian consumers are worried that they may not be covered if they fall ill and can’t pay their premium, leading to some worrying the insurance companies may not even be able to pay.
The government has said the scheme will cover up to 500 million people, and the total number of beneficiaries will be around 3.7 billion by 2020.
“The Government has taken a very hard stance on this issue,” said Aseem Khandekar, chief executive officer of India’s biggest insurance company, National Health Insurance Corporation.
There are also concerns that enrollees may not receive a full bill and that they will not be paid if they go bankrupt or die.
Health insurance companies in India have been increasingly reluctant to disclose enrollees details, and have been lobbying the government to include them in the universal health plan.
According to data compiled by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), a US-based organisation that tracks health insurance premiums, the number-one request for information on Indian enrollees rose from 6.9 million in 2016 to 8.4 million in 2020.
A similar spike in requests in 2020 followed an increase in requests for coverage from 3.5 million to 5.3 million.
It is unclear whether the number is due to enrollees changing their minds and asking for a different policy, or if more companies have asked for details about their customers.
According to the National Insurance Council of India, enrollees’ information is used for both billing purposes and by insurers to check the eligibility of enrollee families.
“The National Insurance Corporation is not responsible for the quality of enrolrecements data, but it can provide an indication of the level of enrolments data that is used by insurance companies,” said a spokesperson for NSSO.
NSSE spokesperson Prabhakar Yadav said the government needs to ensure all enrollees receive the coverage they are entitled to under the plan.
“The government needs a clear set of rules, guidelines, and regulations so that we are able to offer affordable, high-quality and affordable health insurance coverage,” he said.
In the meantime, the government and insurance companies have been trying to keep enrollees updated with the government-mandated monthly medical cost report, known as the MoUs.
This document is meant to give consumers a picture of their personal health insurance costs.
In January, the NSS said it had received more than 1.5 lakh requests from enrollees who were not provided with the MoU.
The ministry said it would also keep an eye on the enrollee data for the next two years.
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