Health insurance not in the pink of health

KOLKATA: Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (Irda) recently examined the recommendations of a working group on health insurance to bring the various stakeholders together to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the development of private health insurance in India.

Insurance Ombudsman (Maharashtra and Goa) BD Banerjee said that the panel had noted that the present state of health insurance in the country was not running on viable terms, adding that this would have to change. He said that there was a need to expand the market and the private players would have to be fully involved in the strategy of propagation and expansion.

Mr Banerjee said that the working group which was constituted by Irda had also pointed out that there was a need for the government to increase health expenditure as well as to include the weaker sections in some form of a pool or funded scheme. Irda was also toying with the idea of introducing health insurance where the emphasis would be on preventive care, he said. Mr Banerjee said that focus on health insurance in India till date had been on curative means.