Courtesy the insurance companies, the malaise that was until recently the exclusive preserve of senior citizens has now become universal in its applicability.
I am talking about the vagaries of what you may be called upon to pay as renewal premium on your health insurance policy.
In case of senior citizens, every renewal has, for quite some time now, become a hurdle. Through overt, and even covert, means, insurance companies had generally been making it known to senior citizens that they are quite an unwanted risk, and the insurance companies are ‘obliging’ these worthies by offering them renewal of their policies. If, for any reason, the senior citizen has missed out on the renewal date and the policy has lapsed, the hurdle becomes a nightmare. In any case, if you thought your renewal premium will be the same as what you paid last year since you have not made any claim this year, well, you may have to think again when your insurance company tells you your renewal premium is ‘loaded’. You have become a year older, haven’t you? That’s enough reason for a loading. And a loading of what percentage?? Anybody’s guess. You are almost completely at the mercy of the moods of the insurance company executive who ‘underwrites’ your renewal, since there is no prescribed, leave alone publicized, basis or pattern for this loading.
And now, you don’t have to be a senior citizen but a member of the sprightly brigade in the fountain of youth and yet suffer the same fate – all because, after years of paying premium, last year you ended up in a hospital and in the process, preferred a claim. In my elementary insurance education I had learnt that insurance companies ‘spread the risk’, they are indeed spreading this risk of loading the renewal premium here to the not-so-senior citizens too.
Following a claim, you would probably be prepared mentally to pay a higher renewal premium, but what you are not prepared for is the staggering hike – garbed ‘claim loading’ – that your insurance company asks you to bear. How staggering? Depends on the same mood of the same underwriter!
I have been hearing and reading lots of voices on this, suggesting various measures from meek submission – ‘thank your stars you are at least getting your renewal’ – to mighty legal action through Public Interest Litigation. The PIL lobby however piped down quite a bit when the incumbent Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, on taking oath, immediately followed it by a statement that he will not look kindly upon ‘frivolous’ PILs.
Meek submission is for the cowards willing to be cowed down by the might of the insurance companies; PIL is for the Don Quixotes. Even if your PIL is admitted by a stroke of luck – if you are that lucky, the unassailable mood of the almighty underwriter ought to have already worked in your favour – and proceeds to result in a favourable judgement, that may benefit just a few, and that too by way of an ‘interim’ relief!!
Is there no scientific way for you to have a go at this Goliath - of whimsical loading on your renewal premium - and bring him to his feet? Some workable solution between pleading for mercy and preferring litigation?? Good news is, there is.
You wanna beat them, you need to think like them.
How is it your insurance company is able to pose a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude when it comes to your health insurance renewal? ‘Cause your renewal premium is a minuscule drop in the ocean of their premium base, and not getting your renewal cheque will not impact the insurance companies top line even just a way wee bit. So, bluntly put, you are dispensable!
Insurance is a number game; the larger your number, the more significant you are to your insurance company.
Great, so how do you, the individual, manifest into a large number? Go forth and multiply?? Clone yourself into a million yourselves???
Don’t worry, I am not suggesting anything of that kind.
Am I suggesting you ride the general discontent of other renewal victims like you, be the leading lion and herd all these people together and start a movement??
Not a bad idea, except that I would believe you also have a few other mundane things like your career and home to invest your time and energy into.
If the solution is large numbers, and I am not advocating you initiate creating these large numbers, what am I saying?
Simple, the large numbers are available to you on a platform, and all you need to do is latch on to this instead of reinventing the wheel.
Have you heard of insurance brokers? Have you come across a dedicated health insurance broker? Look for one and place your renewal through this broker. This broker is already offering large enough volumes to the insurance companies that the insurance company cannot simply throw figures at this broker. Not just because this broker is more significant in premium size than you, the individual; but, and more scientifically because, for every renewal of a policy in which there had been a claim, this broker offers a dozen other renewals of claim free policies. This broker is already an aggregator of several renewals and therefore, your post claim renewal, placed through this broker, is seen by your insurance company in the backdrop of all the claim free renewals and fresh insurances that are also given by this broker to your insurance company. So, suddenly, you seem to matter. While this broker may not be able to completely do away with the loading in some cases, he will ensure that the loading, if unavoidable, is reasonable and not arbitrary, by effectively taking up your cause and case with your insurance company. So, with such a broker representing you, your renewal premium will be in the realms of predictability than astrology.
You may have some bonuses thrown in too.
This dedicated health insurance broker will have the wherewithal to offer you multitudes of services related to your health insurance – like renewal reminders, claim services like cashless coordination and so on – absolutely free! And he will even go beyond just health insurance but be your health partner too, offering several health related services – not just curative but, more importantly, preventive!
Afterall, while it is a sensible thing to always carry an adequate health insurance, to stay healthy and avoid getting into a hospital is an altogether better thing, right.
Recently, we came across news of a judgement in an online Publication, news.yahoo.com
New Delhi, June 13 (PTI) Mediclaim policyholders, who are not satisfied with the service of their existing service providers, will be able to switch to another insurer soon without any change in the premium outgo. However, this facility will be available to those policyholders who are insured for a sum of Rs 1 lakh and above, to begin with
The policyholders will be able to switch their health insurance providers with the same benefits retained once they have bought this cover. At present, a policyholder is given health cover for a year and the same has to be renewed every year.
To read the full news, click here
Experts from Medimanage.com give their opinion:
KS Sankar:
Don’t see much value in this.
Pl don’t get me wrong. I see huge value in portability. It’s just that I don’t see much value in the Council contemplated portability.
Even as of now, quite a few private players offer much wider portability – due to business considerations, of course. It is easier to convert the converted. Read, it is easier to poach on PSU health policy holders than reach out and cover the uncovered masses. And if you want someone who has a PSU health policy to migrate to you during health insurance renewal, you need to have portability.
The key words are ‘widen the cover’. Will the widened cover be wide enough to match the wide open portability existing with private players now? My serious doubts on this are validated by a later set of key words ‘accumulated bonus is not carried forward’. Somehow every time I read it, I read it as ‘even accumulated bonus is not carried forward’ though the word even is not physically there. I would believe carrying the bonus forward is a minimum portability requirement.
The concept of guaranteed minimum covers is being carried in by the Westerly winds. What lands on Mother Earth and what remains in the winds needs to be seen.
Sudhir Sarnobat:
This is a good news for all those Mediclaim members who are not happy with the services of their current company. There could be broadly three reasons why one would like to shift a policy.
The portability would help the consumers but the rules need to be clearer. We also believe that like Terrorism Pool, a portability pool should also be set up & the qualifying cases should be paid from such pool than by the insurer which would bring in better consumer orientation & reliability.