Standard Indemnity Health Insurance Policy to Be Launched Soon

For many people confused about which plan to buy from a pool of health insurance plans available in the market, soon a standard indemnity health insurance policy will be available.

The insurance regulator IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) issued a circular on January 24th as per which the insurers like Apollo Munich Health Insurance, Aditya Birla Health Insurance, Star Health Insurance etc. are now allowed to sell a standardised health insurance policy.

The insurers will be able to sell a standardised health insurance policy named Arogya Sanjeevani Policy before April of this year which will take care of basic health insurance requirements of the policyholders.

The insurance regulator had allowed health insurance providers to offer Arogya Sanjeevani Policy (succeeded by the name of the insurance company) from 1st April 2020. Only this name will be allowed in all the policy documents, as shared by the IRDAI.

As circulated earlier in this month by the IRDAI, "In partial modification of the above-referred clause of the guidelines, it is clarified that the insurers can start offering "Arogya Sanjeevani Policy" before April 1, 2020, and should ensure that this product is definitely offered on or before April 1, 2020. However, if an insurer is currently not offering indemnity-based health insurance products at all, the above stipulation will not apply to those. As and when those insurers start offering indemnity-based health insurance products, they will have to also offer the standard product 'Arogya Sanjeevani Policy’."

Some features of the plan that one must know about are-

The policy term for this product will be a year
The policy will be renewable for lifetime
Minimum entry age for the policyholders will be 18 years
Maximum entry age for the policyholders will be 65 years
The Proposer who is older can also purchase a policy for a family without covering oneself
The plan can cover Self, legally wedded Spouse, Parents and Parents-in-law, Dependent Children (natural or legally adopted children aged between 3 months and 25 years; Financially independent children aged above 18 years cannot be included)
Minimum sum insured limit for the plan will be Rs. 5 Lakh and will vary on the multiples of Rs. 50,000.
If the plan is purchased on individual basis, then the sum insured will be applied to every member
If the plan is purchased on a floater basis, then sum insured will be applied to the entire family

Some major inclusions of the plan are-cover for in-patient hospitalisation expenses, pre and post hospitalisation expenses, and AYUSH treatment.
As per the insurance experts, this policy is a good entry-level product.