New Delhi, March 26 (IANS). India’s health insurance sector is continuously strengthening. The government said on Thursday that the total premium of this sector has crossed Rs 1.2 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-25.
According to the government, the health insurance sector in the country is growing at the rate of about 9 percent annually. The main reasons behind this growth are increasing awareness among people, better access to health financing and increasing need to protect against medical expenses.
To further improve the insurance sector, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has set strict time limits for cashless health insurance claims.
According to the new rules, insurance companies will have to approve cashless pre-authorization requests within one hour, while final approval will have to be completed within three hours.
The government says that these steps will reduce delays in claims and patients will be able to get timely treatment.
There are many reasons behind the increase in health insurance premium, such as increasing age of policyholders, higher cover amount and better policy features.
The regulator’s 2024 guidelines also ensure that insurance products are priced based on risk and reviewed from time to time based on data and customer feedback.
Improvement has also been seen in the sector in terms of claim settlement. The claim payment ratio stood at 87.5 per cent in 2024-25, 82.46 per cent in 2023-24 and 85.66 per cent in 2022-23.
According to data from IRDAI’s ‘Bima Bharosa’ portal, 1,37,361 complaints related to general and health insurance were registered in FY 2025, out of which about 93 percent were resolved in the same financial year.
However, in some cases claims still get rejected. There are some reasons behind this, such as expenses exceeding the insurance cover, co-payment, sub-limit, deductible, room rent limit and non-medical expenses.
The regulator has taken several steps to increase transparency and simplify the claims process. These efforts are aimed at enhancing the confidence of policyholders and making the health insurance system in the country more reliable and effective.
–IANS
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