Health Insurance Scheme: Over 3.41 Crore Cards Issued

As informed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), a study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, on behalf of IRDA, and based on the survey of 30,200 respondents spread over 29 States and Union Territories, indicate that with regard to health insurance, the level of awareness is quite low since only 54 per cent of the households have heard about this product of insurance.

IRDA has initiated various steps, as indicated below, to enhance consumer awareness, as part of its multi-pronged approach of consumer education under the brand name Birma Bemisaal Campaign:

i)       Sponsoring of consumer awareness seminars through consumer bodies on the subject of health insurance.

ii)      Printing of posters on health insurance and portability.

iii)     Publication of Handbooks on Health Insurance.

iv)     Publication of comic series including Health Insurance.

v)      Animation films of the comic series.

vi)     Launching of Consumer Education website www.policyholder.gov.in.

As per IRDA, State/UT wise information is not available, however, company-wise details of number of persons covered under the health insurance for the last three is as under:

No. of Persons covered in Health Insurance Policy in ˜000

Name of the Company	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
National	14677	23963	27555
New India	6681	8164	12264
Oriental	5622	11945	17725
United India	10414	23190	25377
Public Total	37394	67263	82921
Star Health	132410	129038	78073
Max Bupa	0	47	215
Apollo Munich	383	897	3119
Bajaj Allianz	668	1022	1376
Bharti AXA	153	21203	515
CHOLA MS	4053	6781	10887
Future Genarli	358	346	245
HDFC ERGO	1010	1516	1162
ICICI Lombard	11434	18320	26713
IFFCO Tokio	47	1744	19997
L&T General	0	0	196
Raheja Qbe	0	0	0
Reliance	1177	908	3126
Royal Sundaram	1469	3466	6274
SBI General	0	0	4
Shriram General	0	0	0
Tata AIG	984	804	3288
Universal	161	187	285
Private Total	154307	186278	155474
Grand Total	191701	253541	228395

Keeping in view the fact that 85% of the work force is engaged in unorganized sector, the Government of India has introduced the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in 2008 to provide health insurance benefits to the BPL and poor workers. As on 8.3.3013, the coverage under the Scheme through active smart cards is 3,41,73,475.