Author: Vinod N

According to the ICMR-INDIAB study (2019-2021), an estimated 101 million people in India were living with diabetes in 2021, corresponding to a national prevalence of 11.4%. Additionally, 136 million people (15.3% of the population) were identified as having pre-diabetes, a condition that indicates a high risk of developing diabetes in the near future. Given the significant number of people who are diabetic or pre-diabetic, securing health insurance becomes essential, as not everyone may qualify for coverage under government schemes. Understanding how to obtain health insurance as a diabetic or pre-diabetic is crucial to ensure comprehensive coverage without the risk of…

ICICI Lombard launched its Elevate Health insurance plan in July 2024 with much fanfare, claiming to introduce some innovative, industry-first features. One such optional cover is ‘Infinite Care,’ which appears to be the first of its kind in any health insurance policy in India. Shortly after, Star Health also introduced its Superstar policy, featuring a similar benefit named ‘Limitless Care.’ In fact, the Superstar policy by Star Health was launched as a competitive product to ICICI Elevate. How Does Infinite Care Work? Is There a Hidden Catch? Infinite Care is an optional add-on that covers expenses for one claim during…

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has published its annual report for the financial year 2023-24, offering a comprehensive analysis of insurance sector in India. The report covers key areas like industry growth, new initiatives introduced by IRDAI, and the latest additions to insurance companies and more. I’ve extracted the health insurance highlights from this report to give you a clear view of where this sector stands and what’s on the horizon. Let’s dive in. Who’s Providing Health Insurance in India? As of the end of FY 2023-24, 33 insurance companies were operating in India’s health insurance…

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has been a harbinger of change in the country’s insurance landscape through its timely circulars and guidelines across various domains. These efforts have significantly shaped the orderly growth of India’s insurance sector especially Health Insurance. In 2019, the IRDAI introduced guidelines on modern treatments with circulars like IRDAI/HLT/REG/CIR/177/09/2019, later reinforced in 2020 and 2024 through master circulars. These guidelines mandate insurers to cover a dozen technologically advanced medical procedures, including Balloon Sinuplasty, Robotic Surgeries, Oral Chemotherapy, and Stem Cell Therapy, among others. In fact, this is a visionary push to propel…

On January 30, 2025, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) issued a new circular senior citizens premium in health insurance policies. The key takeaway? Insurance companies cannot increase premiums for senior citizens by more than 10% per year. If they want to hike it beyond this limit, they must first get approval from IRDAI. Why is this important? Because in recent years, senior citizen health insurance premiums have skyrocketed—especially after COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, health insurance for older people was always expensive. The reason is simple: as people age, the likelihood of illnesses and hospitalizations increases,…

In this article, I’ve compared two of the most popular health insurance policies from Star Health Insurance—SuperStar and Assure Health Insurance. SuperStar is a newly launched policy available exclusively online through PolicyBazaar or the Star Health website. On the other hand, the Assure policy can be purchased both online and offline, including through agents. Below is a table comparing the basic and optional features of these policies. Besides these, the SuperStar policy also offers several optional covers, such as the choice of deductible and co-payment, inclusion of a spouse without a waiting period (Future Shield), Personal Accident Cover, and Durable…

CT-guided angiography is typically classified as an diagnostic procedure which can be carried out on OPD basis. If your health insurance policy includes coverage for OPD expenses, it may be covered within your OPD limit. However, since this procedure usually doesn’t require hospitalization and is purely diagnostic, it is often not covered under standard policies unless certain conditions are met. For example, if CT-guided angiography is performed as part of a diagnostic process leading to hospitalization for the same medical condition, its costs may be reimbursed under pre-hospitalization coverage, as defined by your policy terms. Similarly, post-hospitalization consultation expenses may…

Super top up insurance policies can be confusing, especially when it comes to claim settlements. I have simplified the concept using examples to explain how these policies work and whether you should consider buying a super top-up health insurance policy. What is Deductible in Super Top Up Health Insurance? A super top-up policy covers claims exceeding a specified limit, called the deductible. The deductible is the amount you must pay out of pocket before the insurance company begins covering expenses. For example, if your super top-up policy has a deductible of ₹5 lakh and a coverage limit of ₹10 lakh,…

Critical illness insurance as the name indicate is to cover the severe illness that require prolonged medical treatment and care. Unlike standard health insurance policy which provide coverage for medical expenses during hospitalisation critical illness insurance provides LUMP SUM PAYMENT on diagnosis/treatment of covered critical illness. How Does Critical Illness Insurance Work? For example, if Ramesh has a ₹10 lakh standard health insurance policy and a ₹10 lakh critical illness policy, and he is diagnosed with a blockage in his coronary artery requiring bypass surgery (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft – CABG), the hospitalization expenses will be covered by his standard…

Yes, you can take multiple health insurance policies, and in fact, this is good option which most of people are not aware of. In this article, I’ll discuss why having multiple health insurance policies can be beneficial, how they work during claims, and the precautions you should take. Why Consider Multiple Health Insurance Policies? You can buy as many health insurance policies as you want—this is not limited to top-up policies. You can opt for multiple standard health insurance policies from the same or different insurance companies, depending on your needs. For example- Ramesh can take two standard base policies,…