After the outbreak of covid people had a sudden realization of the importance of insurance. When lives become unpredictable, people thought of investing in healthcare finances. The last year has been a major transformation including all sectors like education, transportation, business, etc.. . In this situation, India has become the topmost affected country due to COVID-19. The pandemic has given a huge impact on health insurance.
This might be continued until the virus gets eradicated from India.
By seeing the recent COVID-19 survey which has been taken in major cities of India, more than ¾ percent of people consider that health insurance is a must. During the pre-covid situation, people took insurance only in the period of any medical emergencies. Otherwise, it is considered to be unnecessary to get a health insurance policy. But now, how it has changed our lives! People are now paying more and more to get the best health insurance policy.
The thing which once considered as an option changes to priority. For a long period, health insurance protects them from the financial crisis. The main advantage of having health insurance is that all medical expenditure like the post and pre-admission in hospital, expenses for homecare treatment, etc can be claimed using the healthcare policy.
This is how it differs from normal health policy and corona health policy. Because all these expenses are not included in standard health policies. It only pays for treatment, vehicle cost, and for surgeries provided when the admission is more than 24 hrs. The impact of coronavirus is expected to have profitability in the health insurance industry. It is considered that covid 19 will increase the future health of the insurance.
Changes in health insurance
Launching of a new scheme for coronavirus-affected patients. In India 2 such policies were introduced i.e. Corona Kavch policy and Corona Rakshak. This policy takes care of all expenses which are happened due to COVID-19. This is a short-term policy for a period of 3.5 to 9.5 months. It even allows us to renew our policy up to a certain period and can switch from Corona Kavach policy to any other health plan if the person is not affected by COVID -19.
Introduction of new installment options for paying the policy premiums. The virus has majorly affected the economy of India. People are suffering a lot without proper income. By considering this situation Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority introduced new installment methods. It makes anyone buy a health insurance policy at the most needed time.
Challenges faced by health insurance companies due to COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, the treatment cost per patient cannot be properly estimated. Based on 2020, the company has provided the customers with detailed information about the cost of covid treatment. But still, there is a fluctuation in the cost due to many facilities like advanced treatment, tests, a vaccine which is available in 2021. Due to this the cost for each person gets increased which will become the main factor in increasing the premiums of health insurance in 2021.
Due to numerous numbers of insurers, tracking and monitoring of patients are a difficult one, while also protecting the staff. In order to maintain huge data many technologies like RPA- Robotic Process Automation, ML- Machine Learning, and AI – Artificial Intelligence were implemented to carry the work.
