Telangana and Andhra Pradesh lag behind in buying medical insurance

Hyderabad: The states of Telangana and AP are not in the list of top five states that insure their health. Five states, namely, Mahar-ashtra, TN, Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat contributed 69 per cent of the total health insurance premium, according to the annual report of the Hyderabad-based Insurance Regulatory Development Authority released on December 15.

The IRDA report said, ‘Rest of the 31 states and UTs including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana contributed 31 per cent of the total health insurance premium. Maharashtra alone contributed Rs 7,715 crore, that is, 32 per cent of total health insurance premium. On the other hand, the health insurance premium from the eight sister states of North Eastern India (including the state of Sikkim) was only Rs 195 crore (0.80 per cent) for the year 2015-16.

The report revealed that the premium collection in the health segment continued to surge ahead at Rs 27,457 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 22,636 crore in 2014-15, registering a growth of 21.30 per cent.

During the financial year the general insurance and standalone health insurance companies have settled 80.35 lakh health insurance claims and paid Rs 21,759 crore towards claims.

Meanwhile, the life insurance industry in the country recorded a premium income of Rs 3.6 lakh crore during 2015-16 as against Rs 3.2 lakh crore in the previous financial year, registering growth of 11.84 per cent.

“Around 8.54 lakh claims were settled with a total payout of Rs 12,636 crore. The claim settlement ratio of LIC was better than that of the private life insurers. Settlement ratio of LIC had increased to 98.33 per cent,” said IRDA.

The number of claims rejected was 15,157 for an amount of Rs 736.51 crore. The number of claims pending at the year-end was 6,031 and the amount involved was Rs 444.23 crore.

Motor business continued to be the largest non-life insurance segment with a share of 43.89 per cent.

An IRDA official said, “Instances have been brought to the notice of the authority that insurers are not complying with the orders of Consumer Forums, Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, and Awards of Insurance Ombudsman. All insurers have to comply with the orders of judicial and quasi judicial bodies as per time lines specified in the orders or within 60 days of receipt of the order by the insurer in cases where no time limit is specified in the order. If the insurer chooses to prefer an appeal against the order, such appeal shall be preferred within the stipulated time limit as per applicable rules and the customer should be informed.”

The Overseas Travel Insurance sector has issued 22.39 lakh overseas travel insurance policies covering 39.29 lakh persons.