Government to bring over 10 crore BPL people under new health insurance scheme

MUMBAI: Few industries get an opportunity to grow by a third in one stroke, but the general insurance industry has, thanks to the budgetary proposal of providing health cover to a huge population. The industry has an annual premium opportunity of between Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore, as the government plans to bring over 10 crore people below the poverty line under a health insurance scheme and enhance health insurance cover to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 30,000.

“The new health insurance scheme announcedhasthepotentialto match, if not dwarf, the crop segment, which saw momentous growth during the last two years,” said Alice Vaidyan, chairman, General Insurance Corp Re.

Currently, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna provides an annual coverage of only Rs 30,000 to poor families. The average premium paid per policy is around Rs 500.


“The government will launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, benefiting approximately 50 crore people, providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year,” the FM said.